Linda: How people feel – Having no problems with multiple medicines
Listen to patients and health professionals speak about their experience with taking multiple medicines.
Linda
Female
Age at interview: 53
Number of medicines: 5
Cultural background: British
Linda is attempting to introduce one medicine at a time so that she can establish routines that can be maintained for the rest of her life.
Sort one thing out at a time. So, kind of add in the long-term medication ... once I'm OK with this one, this Crohn's disease one, right, that's OK. I don't have to take HRT while it's got that effect so I can now think about statins. I guess that's the way I'm dealing with it, one at a time. Hopefully, they're all OK, they've all got minimal side effects and I will be able to take them for the rest of my life. But I also have this worry about ... suddenly you get to a certain age, all these things go wrong with you, you need to take all these medications to sort out your osteoarthritis, your irritable bowel, your low vitamins, high cholesterol dah de dah de dah ... and you just ... you know, this onslaught of drugs into your system doesn't seem right to me. I kind of feel like I need to introduce them individually so they can get to know each other, sort themselves out and then I'll take the next lot and probably ... so, at the moment I’m taking, you know, I'm taking the [inaudible], you know, the ones for the Crohn's disease, I'm taking the vitamin D. I've only just recently stopped taking the HRT, but any time soon, would immediately start taking that again. Again, the aspirin’s just been introduced …
The Living with multiple medicines project was developed in collaboration with Healthtalk Australia.