Wasps, antibiotics, and "The Crutch Force"

Last week, a lady in Lakeland, Florida was stung over 1,000 times by yellow jacket wasps when she stumbled upon their underground nest in her backyard.  She was covered with so many wasps that they had to clear out part of the emergency room as they continued to fly out of her hair.  She remains in critical condition with liver and kidney failure.  Once they sting, wasps release a pheromone which tells other members of the colony to attack.  And unlike bees, a single wasp can sting multiple times. 

Speaking of wasps, about a month ago I was spraying a small yellow jacket nest attached to my house.  When a couple of them came at me, I did two sudden leaps backwards and snapped my Achilles tendon.  I lamented afterwards that I would rather have been stung multiple times.  But this brings up an interesting question - How many stings would I have taken in exchange or a torn Achilles?  Certainly more than 10.  Perhaps 100 or more, if I could be assured that I would only suffer the pain and no other serious consequences.  But this brings me to another couple of interesting points about my injury - antibiotics and the "crutch force".

• Six weeks before my popped Achilles, I took a short course of Ciprofloxacin for an elbow infection I got from a thorn injury.  When I heard that this antibiotic was known to cause spontaneous rupture of the Achilles tendon, I asked my doctor for something else.  Since I only took it for 2.5 days, my doctor doubts this had anything to do with it.  However, in one study, 10 of 38 patients had symptoms within 3 days of starting the drug, and tendon rupture occurred as late as 90 days after treatment.  The drug apparently causes mucinous degeneration which explains why the rupture can occur many weeks after treatment.  My Achilles wasn't healthy, but I believe the drug was the final straw.
• During the course of my injury, I have made a most remarkable discovery.  Until now, scientists have been aware of only 3 fundamental types of force - gravity, electromagnetic, and nuclear forces that hold atoms together.  But I have "stumbled" across another.  You see, whenever I lean my crutches up against a wall or counter, they eventually fall - always.  In fact, it is such a certainty that our dog is afraid to walk past them.  I make a point to stand them perfectly level but they still fall, sometimes 15 minutes or more after I set them there.  Newton's laws of physics tell me that there has to be another force acting, as objects at rest cannot begin to move without one.  This force, whatever it is, seems to only act on crutches.