Life is full of twists and turns that bring us into contact with many different people in many different professions.

I wonder just how often we understand how others feel when they require assistance, when they are ill and when they have problems.

How often do we hear people say “I know and understand how you feel” or “Don’t worry it will be all right”

Do they really know how you feel?

How can they if they have not experienced the same?

They can not.

How do they know it will be all right?

Can they read the future? Do they know what is to come/what is in store for us?

They do not know what the future holds for us.

It is impossible for us to know unless we have experienced the same things and even then there are differences in the actual experience between different people, how we react, the way a given situation affects each of us, these are all individual experiences, we are all individuals.

We all know so called “experts” with degree’s and certificates on this subject and that one who knows it all on paper but do they know it in person?

Have they ever experienced it for them selves?

The only experts around are those who have lived it, experienced it in person and not read it in a book or been taught about it in a classroom.

With my own experiences they go back a long time, over 25 years to be exact.

My first real experience with hospitals began in 1971 when I had to go into hospital, whilst in the army, for a medial menisectomy, that is a cartilage operation on my left knee, due to damage to the cartilage.

I was admitted to the British Military Hospital in Hanover in West Germany.

I underwent the surgery and was not recovering that well, the leg was playing up, very painfully and swelling up with fluid, but the medical staff appeared unconcerned with this and I was told, after around 10 days, that if I got down to the discharge office for my paper work I could leave the hospital and go home.

With an offer like this, what could I do?

I walked out of the ward (forcing myself to walk as well as I could), and as I got out of sight I virtually crawled down 2 flights of stairs and along the corridor until I got to the office door where again I forced myself to walk in to obtain my paperwork the pains in my knee where really bad and I had to lean on the enquiry desk to ease the weight on my knee.