Micaela: Organising and storing medicines – The work involved in organising medicines
Listen to patients and health professionals speak about their experience with taking multiple medicines.
Micaela
Female
Age at interview: 38
Number of medicines: 21
Cultural background: Anglo-Australian
Micaela resents having to organise her medicines, which she attributes to her personality.
Depressing! Frustrating! You just … I just get sick of the sheer amount of them and the fact that I'm on them every day.
I'm not a very organised person and it's kind of weird. We all have these paradoxes. I love organising things that I enjoy! [laughs] I love organising going overseas, for example, and organising where I'm going and staying, but to be organised in the sense of, ‘Right! Now I know I need to take this medication here and blah, blah, blah ...’ No, I'm not interested!
I know that's something I need to get over, but it's also part of my personality. [laughs] I'm very loath to ... if I'm not interested in something, if I don't see an immediate gratification from it [laughs], I'm very loath to get organised about it. Again, you know personal weakness. Then again, I think the same trait has allowed me to be a spontaneous person in certain respects too. But, you know, a bit of rigidity in some of my organisational skills would be helpful, with regards to my medications and supplements.
The Living with multiple medicines project was developed in collaboration with Healthtalk Australia.