<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>> Hello Everyone: I want to share something interesting. Last night, at the recommendation of my doctor who diagnosed my Celiac, my husband and I attended our first MNPPA meeting (Minnesota Physician-Patient Alliance) meeting. This meeting was compromised of doctors who are tired of the HMO's taking charge of the way they practice medicine. The alliance consists of 200 physicians and 50-100 patients. There were 12 or so of us at the meeting. I wish I could tell you all about the meeting, but after a while it would become more than an e-mail post. In the beginning of the meeting, my husband was sharing with some of the doctors present the horrors that I had to go through with my multiple health problems and especially the diagnosis of Celiac Disease. They were appalled and saddened by the fact. At the end, I was talking to a pain management Dr about my story. He shook his head and said, do you realize that years ago when Dr's were training in med school, the top question was "do your stools float and other questions pertaining to diagnosis Celiac Disease?" He said that Celiac Disease is one of the oldest diseases out there and it was standard protocol for Dr's to be more in touch with the disease a number of years ago. Today, Dr's have lost art of questioning about symptoms around Celiac and have almost treated it as a non existent disease in spite of the fact that it is more prevalent now than ever. He also said that many doctors are diagnosing Irritable Bowel Syndrome when in fact they should be looking at Celiac Disease. I told him how incredibly sick I was and how the last Dr before Dr Thorsen said that I was not classic for Celiac even though I was anemic and stools were 100% classic and I could hardly walk around as I was so weak. He still thought it was psychiatric and was going to send me to a psychiatrist. This doctor again shook his head and rolled his eyes stating something like unbelievable. It was so liberating to tell other doctors that could empathize what a horror and hell that both of us had to endure to get the help I needed. Lisa