Post Chemo Life

I was out on my morning walk which often is a time for reflection and started thinking about beaches and surfing and rips.  This led on to thoughts about the difference between "learned" (theoretical and practical) knowledge and "experiential" knowledge.  Of course, because everything does, this cycled back to cancer and treatment.  I then thought of this discussion and other similar comments that have been posted.  I wonder if the problem is that the doctors lack experiential knowledge of the treatments.  Not that I, for one moment, want anyone to be diagnosed with cancer and have to have chemo or rads or anything else.  But while these doctors are the experts at determining the course of treatment and have seen many people go through it, it's not the same as actually experiencing the treatment and no amount of reporting back about side effects can replace that level of understanding.  For example, how can someone who hasn't experienced it really know what I mean when I say that after chemo I feel like a jellyfish - as if my bones can no longer support me?  I think one of the network members at one time said that she had more empathy from her GP who had herself gone through treatment.
Okay, philosophical moment over.