Mary: Starting and changing medicines – Reducing the number of medicines taken
Listen to patients and health professionals speak about their experience with taking multiple medicines.
Mary
Female
Age at interview: 66
Number of medicines: 8
Cultural background: Anglo-Australian
Mary’s endocrinologist agreed that she could stop insulin because she had lost a significant amount of weight. Her blood pressure and cholesterol levels have also greatly improved and she has been able to reduce the doses of a number of other medicines.
Jacqueline:
And you were on insulin for diabetes?
Mary:
Yes.
Jacqueline:
How long were you on that [insulin] for?
Mary:
I'd say about five, six years or more. No, about 10 years, but because … after I had the stroke, I thought, ‘Uh-oh!’ So, I lost some weight and I lost 25 kg and then my sugar level was right down and the …what are they called? An endocrinologist … I see her every six months. She took me off the insulin and she's been happy ever since … I mean, OK, my blood pressure is normal now. My cholesterol is right down. Actually, she has lowered the dosage of my cholesterol. Yeah, she has. I'm on … I can't remember what it is. See, I'm on that much medicine and I don't even know what it is. But I know that she's cut down on the ... instead of taking this tablet twice a day, I now take it once.
I also ... Somac I used to take a few times a day. That's down to one, because I used to suffer a lot from heartburn and all that. Blood pressure tablets ... no, I'm completely off them. Yep, that's the other one. That's right. So I have ... she's quite happy with my blood pressure and, every time I go and see the doctor, we take the blood pressure and it's back to normal, so that’s good.
The Living with multiple medicines project was developed in collaboration with Healthtalk Australia.