Table 2.
Additional Participant Quotes to Support Data Analysis
| Category | Dimension | Supporting quote |
|---|---|---|
| Losing Me | Putting life on hold | “I knew something was wrong. I knew that I was decompensating. I knew it back a year ago … I felt in me, I was decompensating … you need to get a scan … a spinal scan … that took time … and then seeing a surgeon took time. And then, and then scheduling the surgery took time.” (P3T1) |
| “I really have not been able to exercise and I am someone … I was at the gym three to four days a week … over this last year I have been unable to do diddlysquat … for me that was frustrating because I just could not do it.” (P1T2) | ||
| Proving I need help | “I started going to pain clinics. I went to one pain clinic until what they were doing wasn’t working, then I’d go to another pain clinic. I went from clinic to clinic … One appointment after another cancelled. And then sent me over to a doctor that said, I think I can help you.” (P10T1) | |
| “I did physical therapy for 2 years to try to avoid it. I had a fabulous physical therapist, but it just didn’t work.” (P4T1) | ||
| I won’t be that person | “I feel sorry for a lot of people. I see so many senior citizens. They’re walking with canes. They’re walking with the carriers. I don’t think you have to live that way.” (P5T1) | |
| Fixing Me | Preparing for surgery | “I have one friend that’s saying, ‘I’ll come over and cook for you’. What I really need is a chauffeur. My freezer is stocked with frozen meals and chicken and stuff that I can just pull out and thaw and fry in a frying pan.” (P6T1) |
| Preparing for recovery | “Well, everybody’s telling me rehab is hell on wheels, but [laughing], I don’t know, you’ve gotta approach it on the basis that you’ve got to do it if you want some mobility and dexterity.” (P12T1) | |
| Doing what they tell me | “I just follow the doctors’ and the nurses’ orders. Do exactly what they say.” (P2T1) | |
| “The only thing, you know, once my feet hit the floor, on that bed there’s an alarm system. Right when the nurses come in, they’d say (proper name)! You know that you’re supposed to have nurses to help you get out of bed.” (P5T2) | ||
| “At exactly, boom, day 14, I said, ‘I’m done with narcotics. I’m just going to do the muscle relaxant and acetaminophen’. And that was much better because I didn’t like the fogginess either.” (P6T2) | ||
| Recovering Me | Monitoring | “Well, I’ll say I’m in the process of recovering me … Yeah, by moving my leg, it’s more functional. And I can sit up and do minor things for myself instead of depending on everything.” (P13T2) |
| “I’m still able to do things that I was able to do before, but it’s still weak and I—I still can’t raise that foot as much as I want to …. over the next few months or a year, or whatever, it’ll gradually improve.” (P7T2) | ||
| “I talked to my doctor. I thought I was done with rehab, no one told me how long I was going to stay. I guess I should have stayed longer. I wasn’t doing real good, so he told me I was doing too much. I was overexerting myself. Now I am at a family members home.” (P8T2) | ||
| Progressing | “That rehab I went to was a waste. I mean, all I did, basically, was did my own walking. Rehab-wise it was not really nothing.” (P11T2) | |
| “I figure it will probably be next Spring anyway. The doctor said it would be a year. So, I’m not, not going to push it, because I’m old.” (P9T2) | ||
| Reclaiming | “I’m just hoping that this is going to work and that I will be able to live a normal life the few years that I’ve got left. So, I’m just hoping that this surgery works. I’m just hoping that everything is going to work out good, that’s all.” (P14T2) | |
| “I am getting ready for this art show. I am an artist, and I [want to be at this show].” (P10T2) | ||
| “What brings me joy is being with … I wanted to get back out playing golf. I knew it wouldn’t come in the Spring, but I’d hope the very late Spring … by playing golf means I’m back, [participant] is back. Literally back. That he’s back. So, so, and I’m not sure that’s going to happen … it’s not that I value that over being able to be with family and friends. But it is, it’s a marker, so to speak that I’m back.” (P3T1) | ||
| Conditions | Being Delayed | “That was the bad part, I had to wait almost 5 weeks before I could get in here. I don’t think that helped any either. Because the longer you wait for something, the worse it gets. The doctor was backed up, I wanted surgery the next day.” (P7T1) |
| Having Setbacks | “The spaciness was a strange feeling … disconcerting … what’s happening … am I getting out of touch … that I don’t know what’s going on … I can’t manage here.” (P1T1) | |
| “I got the infection at home [after surgery]. They took care of it right away. I need somebody assigned to me for more physical therapy. If you need to bring a piece of equipment in here, bring it in. These hospital rooms are small, but I need my legs back.” (P12T2) | ||
| Consequences | “I think if I’d been told during my preop visit of what to anticipate … or someone to discuss with me about how my condition had changed and what that would mean for me and how to prepare … I felt like I didn’t have a choice but to stay in rehab, that if I went home—and I really seriously thought about, ‘I just can’t do this anymore. I can’t do another day in the hospital’. … If you discharge yourself, you’ll not be able to go to the rehab hospital later. So, it was the only choice to stick it out another day and wait to see what insurance says … insurance will allow for home health assistance … so if rehab doesn’t work out, I will develop my own program at home, and I can do that.” (P3T2) |
Notes: P = participant; T1 = time one; T2 = time two.