Illustrative participant quotes
| Category | Subthemes | Illustrative quotes |
| Discharge transition | Physical therapy | “If we had been in [Town], he would have had physical therapy which was recommended,” … “…he was qualified for both of them, but we live 15 miles south of [Town] and he gets nothing… there’s no respite care, there’s no nothing.” |
| Preparedness | “They were very good about preparing me to go home but I was just very weak.” | |
| Rural insights | Resources | “…we don’t have all the services that Harborview provides where we live…We have a good hospital, it’s about…probably 25 miles away…um probably you know a good 40 minute drive, so if there’s something that comes up…we gotta stay mindful of that and give ourselves plenty of lead time.” |
| Primary care | “The only thing that I have been finding, you know living out here in this rural area” … “is difficulty finding a good primary, family physician.” | |
| Loss of control | Life changes | “Well, I can’t move my neck very far. Everything else is pretty normal but I can’t move my neck very far so unfortunately, I can no longer drive.” |
| COVID-19 | “Right about when the COVID-19 thing really started taking off, I chose to discontinue going to physical therapy because I just didn’t think that the place I was going was quite cautious enough” … “and I was concerned about getting COVID-19 to my wife who had just done-had surgery for breast cancer.” | |
| Self-efficacy | Support system | “I needed help with basic needs and so this group of friends really pulled together and made sure I was care for, and I think I was really lucky in that respect, I’m not sure many people would have that.” |
| Personal outlook | “I feel pretty fortunate that my surgery was a success and that my life is I’d say equal to what it was before my surgery.” |