Well there are two factors affecting my pill taking in this area. I am extremely forgetful – I don’t think it is Alzheimer’s and I hope it’s not Alzheimer’s – I just lead a very busy life and one just forgets. But there is a factor that every time one takes the pill it reminds one that one is less than perfect. One has hypertension and I hate that.

I hate the fact that every time I see those damn pills the association appears – ‘you have got hypertension and if you don’t take me you are going to continue to have it. It is a kind of continuous reminder of vulnerability. It is not it stops one from taking tablets, it just makes one less driven to remember to take the things. And I yes I did try and do without them from time to time also, and to check my blood pressure and see if I still needed them. I always did unfortunately.

I think that I tended rather than just get a repeat prescription I would actually go and see my GP because I wanted to have my blood pressure checked because I didn’t actually have my own sphygmomanometer at that time and I probably wanted the reassurance that I need the tablets before getting more tablets. And my blood pressure would be up because I hadn’t actually been taking the tablets for a fortnight say and bang I would start off using them again, have my blood pressure checked on the tablets and yes it was lower’ so I was reassured ‘yes I should be taking these tablets.

I bullied my doctors to look for something that I only had to take once a day. That was very important to me in my treatment of my hypertension. I just knew that I wouldn’t be able to remember to take tablets more than once a day. I have got my present tablets are meant to be taken only once a day – I think, but I haven’t inquired too carefully to find out. I am just assuming that if I take them in the morning they will control my blood pressure during the day, and if they don’t do it so well at night then I am resting at night and maybe my blood pressure is a bit lower at night anyway so I don’t need them so much. I saturate my surroundings with tablets. I have them in my bag I have them everywhere I can think. I still manage to always find that I’ve run out wherever I am.

WifeThere are times when I do forget to take them – I don’t notice any difference in myself. Yesterday we went out for the day on a steam trip and I suddenly realised – we hadn’t had any breakfast before we left because we were having breakfast on the train – that I hadn’t taken my pills. But I felt perfectly all right all day and in fact I took them in the evening when I came home. I haven’t gone any longer than that however.

I take these tablets regularly. I have 3 every morning. What I tend to do is each night when I go to bed, I take a glass of milk with me. In the morning the first thing I do is I put the kettle on, I sit down, I drink the milk, I’ve got to take my tablets as they’re there. Night time I have a cholesterol tablet which I take when I clean my teeth, again no problem, can’t forget it.

I don’t think I’d get far if I did forget because I only once walked out of this house going up to the bus stop and I felt my heart was beating like a drum and I thought ‘Oh no I bet I’ve forgotten my tablets,’ and I came back and they were still in the little jar. That little blue box there on the table has sections for every day. So I would be able to realise I had forgotten a day, but I’ve never had that problem.

It’s very rarely that I do forget. The only time I will forget is if I’m away from home because in the morning I have them in the kitchen and theres a glass of juice and I always remember that just before I go. At night it’s upstairs just before I go to bed certain so it’s very rarely I forget. And then I have these pill containers that have the days so I tend not to forget that either.

The fact of having to follow a regime of tablets, apart from these acute episodes, mostly it’s just been don’t forget to take the tablets. I think that’s no big deal, as I said before I can’t understand people saying ‘Oh it’s awful I’ve got to take 12 tablets every day. You think ‘So what? I’ve got to eat 3 meals a day – how awful, I’ve got to go to the loo’, it’s just another thing you do so I’ve never understood that view.

I very, very occasionally forget to take my medication as it tends to be built into my daily routine. I’m sure everybody does this; get up, go and get the water, take them. But very occasionally, say if something wakes you like a phone call say and you’re not treading the same little path that you always tread to the tap and then back to the tablets. If something breaks that you might forget, but then I always carry 2 or 3 days dosage with me wherever I go because you never know. Say you went out for dinner and someone said ‘Oh stay the night, don’t worry about driving home. It would be awful – I have had to do it in the past so I make sure I don’t – it would be awful to say ‘Well no I can’t because I haven’t got my tablets with me. So on the very rare occasions when I do forget I’ve always got them there.

On the odd occasion when I have forgotten them I have started to feel peculiar and that’s made me stop and think did I take them? I will start to feel headachy or anxious. They symptoms are rather vague, ill-defined things. I couldn’t say it’s specifically the hypertension because of course theres all the immuno suppression and everything as well and I can’t isolate it and say ‘Oh it’s just because I didn’t take the beta blocker’ or ‘I didn’t take the Captopril,’ or whatever it might be. But that’s what alerts me, I just don’t feel quite right and that happens around 10, half past 10 and then I think back and realise I haven’t taken them and sort it out.

Well there are two factors affecting my pill taking in this area. I am extremely forgetful – I don’t think it is Alzheimer’s and I hope it’s not Alzheimer’s – I just lead a very busy life and one just forgets. But there is a factor that every time one takes the pill it reminds one that one is less than perfect. One has hypertension and I hate that.

I hate the fact that every time I see those damn pills the association appears – ‘you have got hypertension and if you don’t take me you are going to continue to have it. It is a kind of continuous reminder of vulnerability. It is not it stops one from taking tablets, it just makes one less driven to remember to take the things. And I yes I did try and do without them from time to time also, and to check my blood pressure and see if I still needed them. I always did unfortunately.

I think that I tended rather than just get a repeat prescription I would actually go and see my GP because I wanted to have my blood pressure checked because I didn’t actually have my own sphygmomanometer at that time and I probably wanted the reassurance that I need the tablets before getting more tablets. And my blood pressure would be up because I hadn’t actually been taking the tablets for a fortnight say and bang I would start off using them again, have my blood pressure checked on the tablets and yes it was lower’ so I was reassured ‘yes I should be taking these tablets.

I bullied my doctors to look for something that I only had to take once a day. That was very important to me in my treatment of my hypertension. I just knew that I wouldn’t be able to remember to take tablets more than once a day. I have got my present tablets are meant to be taken only once a day – I think, but I haven’t inquired too carefully to find out. I am just assuming that if I take them in the morning they will control my blood pressure during the day, and if they don’t do it so well at night then I am resting at night and maybe my blood pressure is a bit lower at night anyway so I don’t need them so much. I saturate my surroundings with tablets. I have them in my bag I have them everywhere I can think. I still manage to always find that I’ve run out wherever I am.

The only thing that was purely automatic thing was taking these pills every day’ Atenalol and Bendrofluazide, I think they’re mainly prescribed for this condition. I just took the pills and never worried about it.