Lyn: How people feel – What multiple medicines signifies
Listen to patients and health professionals speak about their experience with taking multiple medicines.
Lyn
Female
Age at interview: 67
Number of medicines: 1
Cultural background: British-Australian
Lyn is disappointed in herself for needing so much pain medication but says that she just has to get used to it.
And the other thing is, I look at the boxes sometimes and I think, ‘How have I come to this, that I have to take so much medication to keep me going?’ But what's the alternative? I don't know the reason really why I don't like taking it. I guess it makes me think that maybe I may be a weaker person for having to take so much pain medication, but I always thought my pain threshold was high and I guess I resented the fact that I couldn't cope with this pain, that I needed to go higher up the level of drug that I was taking and that's not an easy thing to do. However, what it's done for my life has made me realise that I do need it and I just have to get used to the fact that, for the rest of my life, I'll be taking multiple medications to keep me mobile.
The Living with multiple medicines project was developed in collaboration with Healthtalk Australia.