Karen: Problems with multiple medicines (I) – Side effects (2)
Listen to patients and health professionals speak about their experience with taking multiple medicines.
Karen
Female
Age at interview: 37
Number of medicines: 8
Cultural background: Anglo-Australian
Karen manages the constipation caused by her medicines with a high-fibre diet and supplements when she is eating away from home, particularly during times such as Christmas that go for several days.
Look, the main thing with all of those medicines is constipation. [laughs] I had a joke … other women count calories and I count fibre content! So it does … and just having had Christmas, Christmas was really hard, because when I'm doing all my own cooking and stuff, then I can manage it with lots of lentils and beans and I kind of have baked beans for breakfast and bran hidden in yoghurt for morning tea and some sort of bean salad often, or a vegetable soup for lunch and nuts and stuff for afternoon tea and then thank goodness I like Indian food with lots of lentils and stuff, will often be what I'll eat. But of course, over Christmas time, where you're eating out more and you're going out with friends or family and stuff, it's a lot harder. That's when the psyllium husk and the Metamucil and Senna leaf tea sometimes helps too. To me, that's been the constant side effect.
The Living with multiple medicines project was developed in collaboration with Healthtalk Australia.