Living with multiple health problems

Madelon

And how do you do you find it taking all of these tablets?

Yeah, I’ve got used to it after all this time. I’ve got a little thing to put a week’s supply in and it just seems to make the weeks go quicker, you know. I fill them up and think, I’ve only just done that [laughs]. And they’re all gone again, yeah.

Nigel

And were you, your medication changed as a result or?

My medication was changed and then, because your medication changes, that affects your blood sugars, so then you have to start adjusting your insulin to affect the change they’ve give you in your tablets, because every tablet that they give you has a side-effect, obviously, and that alters everything else.  I’m on over thirty tablets a day now.

Okay.

For all my different conditions.

Amy

I’ve always had a good GP, it just…so hard to get appointments and things like that, you kind of have to wait a little. But my G…I…my newest doctor is amazing, she’s very supportive and she…if I go in, like, to do with my asthma or my chronic pain she’ll ask me to book an appointment for three weeks’ time to follow up. So, there’s a lot of support that’s being given to me through my GP.

Val

I was always what they would call an A-type personality, so if I wanted something done, I wanted it done yesterday, not tomorrow. And I think that’s partly getting older, I mean, I’m 70, so I think that as you get older you realise that things like that aren’t as important as you might have thought they were when you were young. But, no, I tolerate all sorts of things now that I would never have been able to tolerate when I was younger. Because, I was quite driven, I was…I’ve always been very competitive, so, yes. But, now, no, I don’t, if it’s going to cause me pain, and I don’t need to do it, I don’t do it.

Eric

What messages might you give to other people who are living with more than one condition? Do you have any advice or messages for them?

Oh, just be careful in what you do, you know, and do all the obvious things. If you can reduce your weight, especially from a diabetes point of view, if you can reduce the weight, then reduce it.  I wish I could.  I keep trying and trying and it has no effect whatsoever, which is a bit dispiriting, but, you know, that’s the way of certainly, do that and also, you know, with the diabetes, watch what your sugars and things are, you know. I know it’s hard but I have this little phrase that there has to be some joy in life. That’s why I have my little bit of choccy [laughs]. You can’t wipe everything off the slate, no, just, you know, be sensible be sensible, that that’s the word.