One small victory in Levaquin Toxicity Awareness

In today's NY Times "Letters to the Editor" section, my letter commenting on the superficial nature of conversations that start with "How Are You"  was printed in all NY Times throughout the nation!  Everyone reading it will be more aware now of the dangers of this toxic drug. The letter is simply:
To The Editor:
             I solved this problem a long time ago.  When asked how I am, I just say "Fine, from my          knees up. The antibiotic Levaquin caused two Achilles' tendon ruptures 15 years ago"  I break through the superficial response expected, and show how to honestly respond by briefly mentioning one real aspect of life in 15 seconds.   Paul Cahan    They added a cartoon figure, by Paul Windle, of a guy standing with his hands on his hips looking down at a figure that is on his back, it's a great image. Hard to describe.  Must be on NY Times website.  It's page A26  Jan. 24, 2014.  Thank you NY Times.  You are the best.

what levaquin did inside my legs

screaming turtle: 2002/3

SCREAMING TURTLE:  IN PINK ALABASTER

It took me about a year to make this, but helped keep my mind off the pain, and helped give me some help with hope.  This horrible pain, and the bump in back of my Achilles tendons in both feet, and the enlarged tendons in the feet that cause so much pain will subside eventually to a tolerable level.  this was a bad time.  It was real torture.  I was wondering if it could be classified as torture, after all, it was man-made damage by a drug company and complicit FDA and poor labeling of the drug and lack of information in the patient handout on delayed reactions being so bad and leading to so much system-wide damage...... torture, I was screaming in pain all the time inside, crying to the surgeon's office for more pain relief... at that time they did not give me pain medication.  ???  They were in denial that a PHARMACEUTICAL could give so much pain?  WTH ???
This was published in Vol. 20 Number 2 2006 Journal of Pain and Palliative Care Pharmacotherapy pgs 78 and 79 that pain doctors nationally see.  That gave me some satisfaction but the article did not say it was from the antibiotic that Johnson and Johnson makes.  they should stick to band aids only.  evil bastards.  Oh yes, wouldn't you be angry too?  !  Again, I say that the act of doing art that gets out the anger and focuses it on creating something temporarily relieves some of the pain, at least if you can do the activity sitting down, or in a position that does not add stress to wherever your pain is.  Finding a way to express what can't be put into words is important to one's health; physical and mental when going through very bad times.  You don't have to have special skills with stone carving, you can just use some paints or crayons and newsprint if you are stuck home in pain and bored..... important while experiencing such stress to 'let it out' somehow for small bits of time intermittently throughout the day.  Maybe I should write an e-book on 'tips for surviving horrible pain that lasts a long time' .   First tip: don't count on your siblings for understanding!  Unconsciously they resent the attention you may foster.  Many families have plenty of dysfunction, and when suffering, just count on your real friends.  (Tip number two)    1/18/2014

" FDA" Portrait

Many thoughts and feelings came to my mind when I constructed this piece over a period of a few months in 2002.  I was wondering from an artists' perspective, what would the face of the FDA or the drug company be. It would be an ugly face, screaming at the public to 'take these medicines, they are safe" and it would be the face of a monster; a corporation that together in group decision where not one person can be guilty, but together in complete, conformity, railroads a drug onto the market. The two I-beams are the railroad of conformity that leads to murder of people's lives, of the tendons in their body's, of the nerves and connective tissue, of the cells in the pituitary that create the good hormones... the teeth are little steel cylinders, bottles of pills that the monster is spitting out to the doctors and the public.  The eye is one twisted steel cold universe of one track thinking.  It symbolizes a crime against humanity and continues the history of mass destruction but on a huge scale, one person at a time, rather than villages or trainloads or napalm; whatever evil damage humans do to others; it takes different forms, but it's the face of a killing machine that has lost it's soul.  That to me, is the FDA and a company, J&J that has NOTHING in patient information on DELAYED reactions that are devastating and lifelong.  It's also the face of a feeling of wanting to lie down between railroad tracks to finally stop the pain.  It's a thought only, not an action, but in chronic bad pain, the thought has been all too real and all these thoughts and anger and sadness comes out in a piece of art here to share with you.  paul cahan   January, 2014    Sculpture made: 2002; 3 years after Levaquin adverse reaction.

I'm glad I climbed a lot of mountains when young. Jim and I must have climbed every mountain in the Rangeley Lakes Region in the mid-1980's through 1997 when Levaquin killed off my mountain climbing days for good.  This is a view above the tree line of Mt. Snow.  Large cairns guide hikers in the remote region in case fog takes over.   My painting was often cubist/sculptural landscape studies.

Face of Chronic Pain

At shareholder meeting trying to make a difference., wheelchair, tendons ruptured by Levaquin.

Johnson and Johnson shareholder meeting 2011 when I spoke about increasing warning label ON THE BOTTLE ITSELF telling people of the dangers of DELAYED adverse reactions that can be disabling that the company knew about but kept secret; they would not be recommending this for common infections if they told the truth of how dangerous it could be.  Shame on the FDA and the company for allowing this drug to be used for common infections, rather than only as a last resort; and shame on the FDA for allowing it to be so mislabeled with no truthful warnings.  I was in a wheelchair when this picture was taken/happy that everyone clapped except the CEO William Weldon.  He promised to "look into it"   Evil company/ lied to doctors and regulators.

Sculptural Expression of Chronic Ankle Pain from Levaquin 2

Levaquin Foot Pain on the Brain 1999

While in chronic pain with tendon ruptures biochemically caused by Levaquin, ( I never needed such a strong antibiotic in the first place)  I could not express the difficulty of living in unabated pain in words so I cut about 100 ankles out of plywood and shaped them into a self-portrait.  This is the face of pain.  Chronic pain takes over your life and your thoughts, sadly.  You feel the pain, you say "crap, here is the pain again, what can I do, how can I live like this" and it's repeated every minute, every 5 seconds unless a strong distraction is made on the other side of the brain. I discovered a little relief by using the 'creative (right"?) side of the brain and in the act of cutting out the feet, the pain relief occurred some for a short time. For those in chronic pain, doing something creative that requires physical interaction is helpful.  In the case of cutting out the feet, it also helped express the anger of what happened to me; I was sort of cutting out the feet of the people at J&J and the FDA who let this awful drug be used for common infections. 

Expression of Internal Damage that caused Permanent Pain from Levaquin

This is what the damage feels like inside my legs that has  caused tendon ruptures and chronic neuropathy and cartilage damage from JNJ's antibiotic Levaquin.  The pain from chemical reaction is indescribable... sometimes like a vice is squeezing my ankles and I'm just sitting.. sometimes a cold pain to the bone that is constant and would drive anyone to want to spend their day screaming and shouting at the FDA and the company and I give up on trying to make the FDA and company put stronger labels on the bottle.  People still being injured. A small black box was added a few years ago in fine print in drug store inserts. How many people read that? It isn't in Spanish either or other languages.  Shame on the drug company's in this country.  You'd think Nazi's are running these companies they are so shamelessly hurting people.