Table 3.

Illustrative Quotes: Gram-negative Bacteremia

Quality of Life Domain	Major	Minor	None
Physical	• “Even though you don’t have the infection, it just leaves your body weak. So, that’s what I’m dealing with. That’s the worst part of it is just drained.” Female, age 68 [CONCEPT 1] • “As time goes on, it, hopefully, will get better. But right now, physical has been. It just sort of kicked my butt, so to speak.” Female, age 68 [CONCEPTS 1, 2] • “I’d say physical would be the most. Like I said, I wear out pretty quickly compared to normal. And I know I can start lifting a little bit heavier stuff, but I also know I have to take it easy on that. After years of being a trainer and helping people recover from their injuries, I know it all isn’t done in a day.” Male, age 60 [CONCEPTS 1, 2, 3]	• “Nothing other than being a little tired now and then. Excuse me, other than being tired.” Male, age 70 [CONCEPT 1] • “But it hasn’t had that much impact except the physical. I just don’t have the get-up-and-go.” Female, age 69 [CONCEPT 1] • “I’d say, I’m feeling more tired than I normally do, but it doesn’t keep me from doing things.” Male, age 86 [CONCEPTS 1, 3]	• “Besides the scar on my knee, hopefully nothing. So, hopefully I’ll just look down at that knee in the years to come and be like, ‘Oh, yeah, and one time I had this infection’.” Female, age 46 [CONCEPTS 1, 2, 3] • “Long-term, none that I can tell... I’ve resumed back to normal activity.” Male, age 69 [CONCEPTS 1, 2, 3]
Functional	• “The most, functioning... I would like to be able to move on my own; nobody have to help me and hold me or whatever they have to do for me, help me with the bathroom situation.” Female, age 64 [CONCEPT 1] • “So, those things are frustrating, you know, having that PICC line in, physically. And then of course, because of my knee, you know, that was really irritating, because home with a walker and it’s hard to move around. So, that had a huge impact on my life… And then you come home, and you have a walker and you need help with everything. Yeah, you know, it changes your life.” Female, age 46 [CONCEPTS 1, 2]	• “I think it went very well. It was easy, wasn’t difficult. It was a bother after a bit, knowing that you had to be someplace at 12-hour intervals, and clean a work area, and get yourself organized, and all that, and then—but other than that—I mean, we knew what the process was, and it wasn’t difficult.” Male, age 70 [CONCEPTS 1, 2, 3] • “Yeah, actually, I didn’t feel much from it. Just a little bit of nausea and some side effects from the pill I take. But the symptoms will become better just after a couple of hours after taking the pill, so it doesn’t limit my activities too much.” Male, age 20 [CONCEPTS 1, 2]	• “There hasn’t been anything, I don’t think... I feel the same way I did. I still work, still pour concrete, thank God for that, you know?” Male, age 51 [CONCEPTS 1, 3]
Social	• “I have been away from people and places and things that normally I probably would when I was using, so I am no longer doing those things right there because I do not want to end up back in this situation again.” Male, age 47 [CONCEPTS 1, 3]	• “I know as I recover I’m going to be able to feel more social again.” Male, age 60 [CONCEPTS 1, 2, 3] • “During most of the month that I was on IV, I avoided social contact unless it was one on one—no restaurants, no gatherings, no, nothing because of fear of being contaminated with something else—flu, for instance. So, yeah, from that perspective, it was limiting, but bearable.” GNB097, male, age 70 [CONCEPTS 1, 2, 3]	• “It may come up in a conversation with a family member or a friend or something and I’ll, you know, give the old blow by blow rundown of all that happened to me while I was in the hospital and I’ll mention the bloodstream infection... Yeah, no impact socially or no sense of, I don’t know, that I would be contagious, I might be scary to them or something. No, none of anything near or anything like that, no... I know that I’m not bothered socially by it.” Male, age 59 [CONCEPT 1]
Emotional	• “Because I did not want to get that shit again. I—it’s almost like—you don’t want to die but, Lord, you don’t care if you do. Really, you feel so bad that you just wanna—you just want it to quit.” Male, age 65 [CONCEPT 1, 3]	• “But I can’t say that I have been deeply depressed. I’ve tried real hard to not be ornery. And I’ve been able to control my feelings. They said I was not a bad patient. I didn’t say anything ugly to people or things like that that happens a lot of times, when people are real sick.” Female, age 68 [CONCEPTS 1, 3] • “I guess it’s a matter of ego and pride, but you get depressed about it at times about not being able to do stuff. As I get stronger I know that will go away. I’ll get back to normal life.” Male, age 60 [CONCEPTS 1, 2, 3]	• “I don’t think I’ve had a severe emotional response to it. I mean, I’m thankful, and I appreciate the support I had, and that sort of thing. But it hasn’t changed the way we live or how we think.” Male, age 70 [CONCEPTS 1, 3]
Cognitive	• “Well evidently, mentally. Because I talked and said things I didn’t know I was saying. So, evidently, it did affect my mental capacity...Yeah. Because I would never have thought, and said, and done things like that.” Female, age 85 [CONCEPTS 1, 3]	• “…going through the illness while I was sick was the awareness of saying, ‘Wow, there are some things you don’t have control over and things will happen, but what you can control is you can control your attitude and you can control how to move forward with nutrition and balance of life and balance of how you do everything.” Female, age 58 [CONCEPTS 1, 2, 3]	• “But mentally, you know I’ve been fine. I accepted it very well. Kind of knew the routine. So, mentally it basically hasn’t changed anything that I do.” Male, age 56 [CONCEPT 1]

The quality of life domains are both overlapping and distinct. These 24 selected quotes represent exemplars from 18 different participants with 2 of these with 2 quotations and 2 with 3 quotations.

Abbreviation: PICC line, peripherally inserted central catheter.