Don: Family, friends, colleagues and acquaintances – Telling people about their medicines
Listen to patients and health professionals speak about their experience with taking multiple medicines.
Don
Male
Age at interview: 70
Number of medicines: 5
Cultural background: Anglo-Australian
Don rarely discusses his medicines. However, he told his family and will tell others in similar circumstances about the success of one medicine in treating a painful and debilitating condition.
Only in passing. I'm not one of those who'll say, ‘Oh, I'm on this and that and I've got to take this and that and I rattle every time I take them.’ No. Just in passing, there have been comments made. You know, some of my family are aware of it and just ask how I'm travelling generally, but we don't really … discuss medication, but I've been quick to tell them the effect that Tegretol has had for me, even though I know trigeminal neuralgia is not that common. I've been quick to tell people that, for me, the treatment with something which had been around forever ... epilepsy, and we've been using that same treatment for 40 or 50 years, worked in this case, for me. So I've been quick to chat about that in passing conversation, but for me, medication's never been a big source of that's what we talk about when we work out or when we meet or whatever. No.
The Living with multiple medicines project was developed in collaboration with Healthtalk Australia.