I was in a hospital recently being prepared for a surgical procedure. During this time, I noticed an army veteran who walked by the open end of my cubical into the cubical next door. He was there for the same surgical procedure I was about to undergo. I couldn’t help but notice that he had an aviator’s jacket on with all sorts of stuff hanging from it that communicated his importance when he served in Vietnam. I might add that I’m a Vietnam veteran also, so I know what all that stuff means. In addition, he didn’t walk past my cubical, he strutted. I thought, “Wow, this must be one tough individual.” After I came out of the procedure, the nurses needed to apply pressure to a vein in a sensitive area for quite a while to stop the bleeding. It was quite painful and I had to grit my teeth a lot. When the he-man next to me came out of his procedure, he was experiencing the same issue, so the nurses had to apply pressure to his vein as well. The difference was that he screamed for a long, long time because as he said, “This hurts me so hard!” I assumed from his outward appearance and demeanor, that he was much better able to handle the pain than I was. As it turned out, he wasn’t. The lesson here is, don’t judge a person by their outward appearance. Often times this will mislead you!!
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