My daughter suffered fetal distress at birth, and as a result, she has brain damage, CP, and is spastic quadripelegic. She turned 18 this year, and has lived at home with us her whole life.

My daughter has experienced increasingly frequent and difficult health problems in the last few years. My wife and I have become very frustrated, because, with few exceptions, we cannot identify the underlying causes of the problems. My daughter is also non-verbal, which complicates matters - she can express pain, but she can't tell us where or how it hurts.

For instance: She has had bouts of what we believed were stomach spasms over the past few years. It was only last year that the doctors realized she was having bouts of pancreatitis. Now, the treatment's was the same - off food, onto IV until it cleared. A few months ago, a CAT scan showed signs of calcification in her pancreas, which suggests a chronic problem.

Thing is, no doctor has told us why this might be happening.

I could go on for pages. The key issue for me today is this: When my daughter gets ill, the doctors seem to treat the symptom. We never get a comprehensive diagnosis and treatment plan.

I think part of the problem may be my wife and I: We go to the doctor or the hospital and say, "Well we think it may be this, this, or this." Then the doctor picks up and says "maybe you're right", and treats along those lines.

What I want to know is: If I wanted someone to do a comprehensive review of my daughter's case, starting without presuppositions, what would be the best way to go?

If it were me, I'd look around for an internist, not a CP specialist, and go in for a general physical. Ask the doctor to do a complete battery of the usual tests, and also give him/her a general history of her medical conditions and ask that she also be given tests related to anything that might involved in the particular aches and pains.

What you'll probably be up against is insurance guidelines. So it's important to have a doctor that will be responsive to explaining medical necessity of the tests due to her non-verbal condition. You also need to be prepared to pay for some of the testing yourself, though hopefully that will not be necessary.

My own son is 16 and also non-verbal, and I know the pain and frustration of having a child who is clearly not feeling well but having no way to figure out what is wrong! I learned that other than the CP, his body is the same as everyone else's and he needs to see "regular" doctors and not just his specialists.