"MedAdvisor has literally changed my life."

Written by Shae Iddles. 

My name is Sandra and for the past 12 years, I have been a full-time carer for my husband and my son.

My husband lives with depression, diabetes, sleep apnoea, atrial fibrillation, heart disease, angina, restless leg syndrome, and bipolar.

My son, on the other hand, lives with Crohn’s Disease and a brain injury that has arisen after a series of misfortunate events. He was first involved in a car accident, where he broke his neck. While recovering, he fell down 3 flights of stairs and developed a traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic epilepsy. He then had a seizure one evening alone where his condition turned to an acquired brain injury and has developed early onset dementia since. As he can’t look after himself, he has a carer to support him but I also care for him.

Between the two of them, time management is crucial for me. I have to be very organised because I often don’t have a second to spare. We are always attending doctors and specialist’s appointments, some interstate; and between the two of them, they take 34 different medications each day. It’s my responsibility to ensure they don’t run out of supply because if they do, it could have drastic consequences. Even if I make a small mistake such as giving them too much of one medication or not enough of another, it means their life.

It’s why I’m so thankful I was introduced to MedAdvisor by my chemist. It has literally changed my life. I used to have ring the chemist to order their medications and that could take up to an hour on the phone. Now, I just go onto MedAdvisor and in less than 4 minutes, I have ordered more than 27 scripts at the same time. You have no idea how much that time back means until you start juggling two different people with very different conditions and very different needs.

MedAdvisor has become a support link for me and if there are other carers out there, who are managing medications for a loved one, I couldn’t recommend it enough. Because you just can’t do it alone. You have to avail yourself to any help you can get – whether it’s from the government, support groups, friends and family, or even an app like MedAdvisor. Being a carer is hard, especially when you’re dealing with illness all the time so connectivity around you is crucial to YOUR wellbeing.

Every week I go line dancing and that’s my time to switch off and escape. I force myself to not think about what I have or haven’t done for the boys and just concentrate on my feet. It allows me to re-energize and refocus so I can have the strength for another day. While I may be more fortunate than others to have this break, I know I am much more fortunate to still have my son and husband. I take every day as a blessing and will continue to do so, despite the obstacles thrown at us.

This post was written by Shae Iddles. Shae is a digital marketer, blogger and also slightly obsessed with anything related to health. She’s on a mission to share your health stories and make talking about our health sexy.