Only by choice. I used to feel guilty all the time, worrying about being a burden and how annoying life must be with me. Now, not so much, I've grown with my pain, I've matured and realised what I once used to say in many of my training sessions is oh so true, we have the power of choice over our emotions. We can choose how we feel, how we react and how we behave.

We choose to feel emotions we imagine other people are thinking. A lovely lady I met once said to me, you would worry less about what people think if only you knew how little they think.

My husband says to me all the time, don't worry about it. I know better now, he really genuinely does mean don't worry about it. There is give and take in all our relationships and I have given our relationship my all.

It would be different if it were just a one way effort, but we are both in this together for better or for worse. We made a conscious choice when we got married, not knowing what could or would be coming down the track. Do I wish it was otherwise, oh yes! But, you know what, it could be worse, it could instead be him that suffers the constant pain and I would not want that! So now when he tells me if he could, he would take my pain, I know, instead, I have taken his.