A few years ago I was very pale and seatry one day, and felt terrible - and it turened out I had a stomach ulcer merrily bleeding away. Fortunately I had the NHS to swing into action promptly, and a course of Zantac and a break from work cleared me up - and antibiotics and so forth to get rid of the Helicobactor Pylori which was the source of tey trouble.

The thing is though I didn't have any pain at all, even though the ulcer had quietly got to a sate which was in fact life-thretening.

It sounds to me as if Bobert needs to get proper tersts and proper advice and appropriate medical treatment, if those tests inducate its necessary.

The insurance trap is a killer - literally so in some cases, and you don't want to be one of those, Bobert. Aren't there any guerrilla barefoot doctors around who can help out? Or even some greedy bastard who would be ready to break the rules for off the record payment? After all, it might well be that in fact there's nothing serious going on that a few pills you could buy over the counter.