I have a daughter that has been sick for the past 10 years. It started in her teens and now at 26 she still struggles. She has been from doctor to doctor and has had tests run over and over but only for basic illnesses and disorders. Obviously she has something going on that is not easy to diagnose or common. She had a surgery at 17 and a GI doctor she recently saw told her that her "so called surgery" would have left more scars. He didn't believe she had surgery, as if she would make that up! It is in her records which he never bothered to read. She had other GI doctors try to prescribe her anti depressants. She is not depressed, she is sick! One GI I saw with her at 16 told me I needed to get my head out of the sand because my daughter has body image issues and is not physically sick, she is making herself sick. Not the case at all! Part of her illness is she is unable to gain weight and keep it on. So yes, we have seen plenty of doctors who don't believe she is ill and brush her off. Meanwhile she goes without a diagnosis and continues to deteriorate. Last week she needed to go to the ER, she lives in AZ, and decided to try Mayo's ER. Her insurance won't cover Mayo, but she went anyways. She could not believe the compassion and kindness they treated her with. While they could not diagnose her right then and there, they did rule out a problem her regular doctor thought she may have. They told her to come back if needed and a nurse told her to fill out forms for financial assistance so she could be seen there. Right now she is barely able to hold a part time job due to the pain and inflammation she gets during what we call "flare ups". My daughter has filled out paperwork and hopefully she can at the very least be diagnosed there. That is what she needs above all. It is hard to manage something when you don't know exactly what is wrong. Over the years not one doctor has gone beyond the basics. It is too bad that when you really need the kind of experts the Mayo clinic provides, your insurance company can deny you that type of care.