Niall: How people feel – Shared experiences of multiple medicines
Listen to patients and health professionals speak about their experience with taking multiple medicines.
Niall
Male
Age at interview: 45
Number of medicines: 7
Cultural background: British (Caucasian)
Niall’s father has managed diabetes for many years and has a more complex regimen than Niall. Consequently, Niall is optimistic about the state of his diabetes.
Um … I'm fairly sanguine about it, I think partially because I've had the example of my father. As I mentioned, he's had … he was diabetic in his mid-30s, so 30 odd years ago. He's then had gout in his 50s and 60s. He had kidney failure in his 60s, kidney transplant, heart valve replacement in his 70s. So ever since, for the last decade and a half or so, he's been on lots of medications. I mean, you visit him at any given time of the day and he'll have got out his medications for that part of the day. And he also does things like, I mean, I test my blood sugars once a day. He's doing it three or four times a day. He has to measure his urine output, because he's had a kidney transplant. For a couple of years there, he was doing dialysis at home, so me having to take five medications seems relatively small beer, compared to what he's been through and still goes through.
The Living with multiple medicines project was developed in collaboration with Healthtalk Australia.