Emma: Adjusting to multiple medicines – Adapting day-to-day life
Listen to patients and health professionals speak about their experience with taking multiple medicines.
Emma
Female
Age at interview: 41
Number of medicines: 19
Cultural background: Anglo-Australian
Emma has made a number of changes to her routines of showering, eating and dressing.
So probably before I started taking so many things I would have got up out of bed and had a shower first before I started doing anything. But since I know that I do have low blood pressure, it will really affect me if I take a shower within one or two hours of getting up. So I need to get up and eat first, not because I'm hungry. It’s because of my medicines that I need to take so that, by the time I hit that heat and humidity in the shower, I feel well enough, especially because I'm living on my own. If something was to happen, if I was to pass out, then I could be in a little bit of difficulty. As far as like getting the washing done or something, that doesn’t make much difference to the rest of my routine. It’s mainly when I'm eating, showering and dressing.
The Living with multiple medicines project was developed in collaboration with Healthtalk Australia.