Suzanne: How people feel – It gets better over time
Listen to patients and health professionals speak about their experience with taking multiple medicines.
Suzanne
Age at interview: 76
Number of medicines: 6
Cultural background: British (Caucasian)
Suzanne sometimes finds taking her medicines bothersome but they do not intrude on how she lives her life.
Um, at times, it's annoying. It's irritating and often I'm just ready to go to bed and I think, ‘Oh, God! I've got to put my medication in order’ and I do do it every night. I don't miss because of that seven o’clock medication I have to take. But I still think I'm fortunate that I only take a few, because I do know of people that take 25, 30 a day and I'm not restricted, really, in any way by it … Well, I think about six years ago, I was on one, which was the … the Nexium and I used to think for my age, I'm really lucky I'm only taking one medication! [laughs] And now I'm on this list of medications. I realise that I need to take them, you know. It's, it’s giving me a better quality of life, because I remember what it was like before I had the stoma operation performed and it was very unpleasant. I've got total freedom now.
The Living with multiple medicines project was developed in collaboration with Healthtalk Australia.