Mary: Keeping a medicines list – In case of emergencies
Listen to patients and health professionals speak about their experience with taking multiple medicines.
Mary
Female
Age at interview: 66
Number of medicines: 8
Cultural background: Anglo-Australian
Mary started keeping a medicines list after her husband suggested it to her, because she once had to go to hospital and could not remember all of her medicines to tell the doctor.
Mary:
But the thing is, with the medicine list, I then decided to do one, just in case, because there was a time when I had to go to hospital and the doctor said, ‘What are you on?’ I thought, ‘Oh, my God! Here we go!’ I rattled off some that I knew, but I said, ‘Oh, there's some missing.’ I said, ‘I've got no idea.’ So, from then on, I decided to do a medicine list and what it is ... it's just a list of medication, which I could get the chemist to do and [husband] gave me a little folder that you get from NPS, I think it is, isn't it? I've put the two pages in there so that, in case I have an accident or if anything goes wrong, my medicine list is always with me in my handbag. I reckon it's great.
Jacqueline:
What kind of difference has it made to you, having kept a medicine list?
Mary:
Oh, great! Because now I'm not afraid that, if anything happens, that I'll forget what medicine that I'm on. Because the last time I went into hospital with the stroke, that was the example, for instance. ‘Oh, great. This is fantastic!’ they said. You know, that I had the whole list of medicines that I'm on. So, there you go. That was the proof in the pudding, there. Yep.
The Living with multiple medicines project was developed in collaboration with Healthtalk Australia.