It is impossible to know how anyone feels unless you have experienced something first hand. Which is probably why I don't like almost anyone I've ever met in the medical field. They only know some things based on what they've read in a book and never gone through. I can't possibly begin to judge someone for complaining about something they've been through that I haven't, I can't ever say something along the lines of "oh, I've had it much worse." Because I simply just do not know. I don't know what it feels like to give birth, have cancer, lose a limb, get shot, or have Pneumonia. My point is, trying to "one-up" someone on something like that is just pointless. Because everyone is so different and every individual body reacts differently to certain things there is absolutely no way of knowing how something feels to someone else. I know what Whooping Cough felt like to me, I know the pain of coughing so hard I dislocated and cracked ribs, coughing so hard that I would vomit on a regular basis and give myself severe nose bleeds. I know the feeling of not being able to take a really deep breath. I know what Pertussis did to me. Just like how I can handle having blood drawn and getting iv's far better than getting shots... Maybe it doesn't make sense, but it's true for me. It's the same situation for emotional events too. I know what it's like to lose a loved one, but I don't know what it's like to lose a child. I hope I never find out. I know what it's like to deal with bi-polar disorder on a daily basis and having to hold up a mental wall to keep control of myself the best I can. No one else can feel that but me. We can share our similar experiences, we can hold each other up, we can love and support the people we love through everything, we can do our best to sympathize and even empathize with someone else. But arguing about things we have no idea about is a waste of breath. My lungs are permanently scarred and damaged... So I'd like to hold on to every breath I take.