Lesley: Family, friends, colleagues and acquaintances – Concerns for how medicines affect people they love
Listen to patients and health professionals speak about their experience with taking multiple medicines.
Lesley
Female
Age at interview: 74
Number of medicines: 25
Cultural background: Anglo-Australian
Lesley suffered memory problems when she was withdrawing from an addiction to Valium. There are a number of important family moments that she does not remember.
That is why I was in withdrawal for all those years. During all the years I was on the Valium, I have memory blanks for a lot of that time when my children were growing up. My brother-in-law's wedding ... there's a photo of me there, but I have no memory at all of being there; and other things like that too. So I don't want that to happen again. I've got enough memory blanks at the moment for after Max died. I have very little memory of his funeral and, say, three months after that. I don't want that to happen again through taking medication. That part couldn't be helped, because that wasn't a medication problem. But I don't want that to happen again through medication.
The Living with multiple medicines project was developed in collaboration with Healthtalk Australia.