I give you all of these details simply to give you a very limited snapshot at how complex diagnosing supposedly common disease is. Patients don't show up with signs telling us their symptoms, and the same disease will present in a different patient in a different way. Telling physicians to "simply diagnose better" is like telling pilots to "simply not crash the plane" or mechanics to "simply fix the car." To those not involved in those fields the solution is obvious, but, as with many things, the problems lie in the particulars.

I don't even think you need to preface this post with your "elitist caveat".

People think that because they have the information available, it means that they have the knowledge to solve a particular problem. But there is more to it than that, there is intuition and a thing I am unable to describe which allows professionals to see through problems much better than amateurs.

I appreciate your comment here because people need to be reminded that there is a reason to trust doctors and other professionals, not as an appeal to authority, but because they trained in areas and cases where you are not!

Seriously great read thanks for taking the time.