Poisoned by Doctors, Huge Bills.

In 2012, at the age of 48, my appendix ruptured. In the hospital, I was offered the latest and greatest of antimicrobial concoctions to treat the infection (which was safely localized in my lower abdomen). The only warning I was given was that the drug could cause achilles tendon rupture in athletes and the elderly, but I was told that it was very rare. In hindsight, being given such a toxic drug under the circumstances was like killing a fly with a one-ton anvil. There are many days I wish I had stayed hom to die instead of enduring the pain of my body turning on itself, destroying bone and tendon.

It's nearly 3 years later, and I have recovered from much of the damage that ciprofloxicin did. I still have endocrine damage and have finally been accepted to OHSU's diabetes and endocrine clinic to try to sort it out. I have osteopenia and body-wide tendonopapthy. Every tendon in my body is weak and painful, even the ones around my eyes. I am in pain every minute of every day. I can't walk far because my own weight on the tendons in my feet causes me intense agony... but because I can walk to my car, Medicare will not pay for a wheelchair.

I am a Girl Scout Troop leader, and I desperately want to be out with my troop this summer. In order to support the girls in the activities they want to do, I need an outdoor walker/wheelchair combo, and I've chosen this because it will not get stuck on walking trails:

http://www.walknchair.com/walk-n-chairtm-in-red-with-attachable-footrests.html

Stem cell therapy will cost a little less than I originally thought, but without it, I will not recover. I've been told by several different specialists that without stem cell therapy, I can consider the damage to my tendons permanent.

So, my first goal is $985 for the chair, then $9,000 for stem cell therapy.

Here's more of my story:

This was me, 3 months before my appendix ruptured and I was given ciprofloxicin, a drug from the very toxic fluoroquinolone drug class. (For more information on fluorquinolones, visit: http://www.saferpills.org)


I recovered from the rupture, but my health, both mental and physical, declined rapidly. I began showing signs of cognitive damage and neuropathy while in the hospital. I thought the symptoms were due to the infection... but they never went away. During the first month after I was released from the hospital, I lost 20 lbs and my menstrual cycle went haywire, leading to surgery 9 months later to stop the erratic hemmhoraging. During the first 6 months, my hair started falling out in chunks, my skin aged decades as my connective tissue melted, I developed tendinopathy throughout my body, and my rotator cuff and bicep tendon both tore, also requiring surgery. My feet became too painful to walk on, and I suffered excruciating pain just getting out of bed in the morning.

This was me, 4 months after I was given the toxic drug... I lost quite a bit of hair (I know it's hard to see, I always said there are 3 bald women out there because I got their hair), lost a lot of weight, and my skin suddenly started sagging:

This was also about the time that my tendons started tearing. First my shoulder tore, then 6 months later my bicep tore when I was trying to defend myself from someone forcing my car door open.

18 months after being given the Cipro, I was almost completely bedridden with severe vertigo. Every day I felt like someone had doused me with gasoline and lit me on fire. I lost bladder control. My tummy was horribly bloated and I could barely eat. My teenaged son forced me to eat because he was afraid I was going to die. I was able to sleep only a few hours at a time, and doctors variously diagnosed me with anxiety, fibromyalgia, and menopause. I knew it was something more than that, and I gave up hope and started planning to end my life.

My kids still need me, though, so I tried to stick around and searched for ways to make my life bearable. In my research, I learned that methods of treating tendinopathy using stem cells had been approved by the FDA, and I started wondering if it could help me. I called my old naturopath, who I had to stop seeing because my insurance does not cover alternative medicine, and asked for a consult. During the consult, he questioned me about my history since the last time I had been in his office, approximately one month before my appendix ruptured.

Then he told me, "I think you have Fluoroquinolone Toxicity Syndrome" and directed me to the most wonderful support group I could ever hope to find, where I learned as much as possible about this disease and how to treat it.

And I have made headway, especially cognitively, but I am still dealing with profound damage to my systems. I need supplements and healthy food, and my budget just does not cover everything. I deal with collections calls every day, and I ignore them because all I want is to get well enough to be able to stick around for my kids.

This is what the connective tissue damage looks like on my hands:

Most days I wake up and my hands feel like cardboard and I can't move my fingers.

Stem cell therapy is my best hope to reverse the degeneration of my connective tissues... my hands and feet are a mess, and it hurts to walk and try to pick things up, even everyday things like a pan of oatmeal. My joints hurt all the time. The discs in my spine are dehydrated and my MRI shows a lot of spots that could turn cancerous.

At the height of my pain in 2014 I was planning to end my life, but I don't want to die. I love life... so the first $100 I raised went toward a DNA test so I'd know how much damage was done on a cellular level, and the results came back looking very good. My body is as healthy as it can be until I get stem cell and appropriate medication for my endocrine issue.

Any extra money will be welcome, as I get $925 a month in SSDI and maybe $500 in child support if I'm lucky (and I mean really lucky, because my child's dad is very fond of taking time off to vacation), and right now, I'm unable to work. So far, every extra cent has gone for the supplements my doctor wants me to be on to help my body strip away the fluoroquinolone molecule, which cleaves to human DNA and continues to damage tissues for years after it's taken, and for supplements to support nerve and gut repair... and I've only been able to get this far by letting some things go into collections. I figure I can repair my credit later, because good credit is worth nothing to me compared to good health.

Thank you for taking the time to read my story.