Injuries, or age?

I've been weight-lifting for about twelve years now, and I can count my serious injuries on one hand. I severely sprained my elbow about two months ago, and I hope it's a one-time thing and not a sign of advancing age. I tried to work through it, which led to my injuring the other elbow (a nasty bout with tendonitis, which I've struggled with for years).

Basically, straightening my arms generates some impressive cracking noises. I'm now back in the gym, after putting on about ten pounds and going stir crazy from forced inactivity, but these elbows ... they're not what they once were. I should take a video of all my max lifts now, to capture for posterity my middling (in the realm of powerlifters) strength.

What's really frightening is that it took me years and years of weightlifting before I could bench press more than the female world record. Yipes. Sometimes I wonder what I could have accomplished if I took HGH or steroids. Considering that my family, and most people who have known me for years, think I took them anyway, I should have just given it a whirl for a year or two.