P10 (65–69 years, multiple arm fractures) ‘So, you can’t hit my arm and it’s really painful … I couldn’t drive for six months … I couldn’t lift the grandchildren … that was a huge problem and it still extremely hurts when I lift them on my arm’. | |
P2 (80–85 years, arm / leg injuries) ‘I was already suffering from a neuropathy … and also Parkinson’s and so this has really exacerbated it, compounded it … I’m typing [on the computer] instead of writing … fortunately the brain is still reasonably accessible’. | |
P1 (70–74 years, whiplash) ‘It’s getting harder to do [social activities and sport] because, I mean I do catch up with them, like for a barbecue and things like that, but it’s not the same sort of situation where we used to go out and we – we play a round of golf and have two beers and come home and things like that’. | |
P11 (85–89 years, upper limb dislocation) ‘Really, I mean, I’m now doing everything … I’m not terribly good on managing a crowbar these days and digging a deep hole, but otherwise I’m doing everything’. | |
P6 (70–74 years, fractured ribs) ‘I do have pain, but you know, I am at an age now, that you can’t do without any pain, but I would say it’s got nothing to do with that [the injury]’. | |
P10 (65–69 years, multiple arm fractures) ‘I am not quite sure what retirement means. I tend to do more than I ever did but I have retired … [the injury] accelerated it. Yeah, I wouldn’t have [retired] because I was actually working with my daughter and minding the children and doing other things and that stopped me from doing that’. | |
P12 (65–69 years, fractured sternum, whiplash, psychological impact) ‘I had a mortgage and I’m on my own, so I had to go back earlier... It just got to the point where I felt totally burnt out’. | |
P12 (65–69 years, fractured sternum, whiplash, psychological impact) ‘When I went back to work after my accident, the fear was, oh my God, I have to pay this mortgage off, and I’m going to pay it, it’s not much, but I had to pay it off, and I did’. | |
P8 (75–79 years, head injury, arm movement limitation) ‘When I’m doing something, I can remember what I’m doing, but given half an hour, nowadays, I’ve forgotten it... that’s why I thought I had Alzheimers and I wanted the test’. |