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Injection; IV Complications and Information MEGATHREAD and FAQ II - show me the blood

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Whats up fellow bluelighters, been reading bluelight for awhile now never got around to making an account finally decided to make one. Honestly kind of just wanted to test posting on this site, so i went down the list and saw this forum about Iving so I figured I'd help with my point of view on a little harm reduction. I am clean now for 5 months had a relapse in the summer smoking crack havent really put a needle in my arm since last February. However heroin was my drug of choice. Even though I'm not using anymore doesnt mean I cant offer what I remember on trying to keep sanitary as possible (and honestly i was probably one of the worst re-using all dull dirty needles and same equpiment all around) As far as track marks go I usually just wore a long sleeve teeshirt and was around other junkies all the time so didnt really matter. I switched injection sites pretty regulary too so that my track mark on my elbows wouldnt be so noticeable. Now sometimes they did get a little outta control but I dunno i guess i just got lucky with being able to cover up and i pushed ppl close to me away so they werent around to check em out. What seem to help if not with the track marks is i would always have some triple anti-biotic ointment and hand sanitzer that i would apply directly around doing a shot. Wouldnt do it all the time but tried and I dont probably just be a good measure for any person Iving. Just use clean equipment if you can I fucked up. And if you get real sick and tired of being a junkie theres another way to live brother. Anyway thanks for taking time to read my rambling statement. Good day everyone
 
Originally Posted by blurrrxx
not sure if this has been mentioned or merged with the other thread that i've said this in, but just so it can be out there a in a more prominent way, vit. E has been a lifesaver for me and others i've known in reducing the appearance of tracks/misses/etc. for real try it, you'll notice even the next day a ton of improvement. --stay safe !
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Do you mean applying it directly to the affected spots on your skin? Honey has actually worked really well for me. I totally blew up the one shot I attempted last weekend, but had honey on it for the following 2 days and there was no bruise, whereas typically the bruises last about a week. Even as I've been 'searching' for veins this week, there's been more marks from just successful pulls - no injections, no misses - than from that huge miss bc I didn't apply any honey to the spots compared to the missed shot.
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yes, apply it. I've never tried honey, that's interesting! hmm. ^ TheBronx2Newark this will be helpful for you too!
 
Hmm yeah well Im out of the game so to speak not going put a needle in my arm ever again god willing I just love bluelight and I think were I would fit in best is harm reduction becuase i dont wanna talk about what kind brands of dope you can get where(do still check it occassionally) I was just offering some advice but then again I got some former tracks that didnt heal probably (little purple spot more noticeble on some days then others) but eventually i wanna get them taken care of and yeah honeys real interesting and some ppl just told me about creams that are meant for that so id look into that, dont know what E stands for tho.
 
I wouldn't rub honey on tracks. If you have injected recently, there is a good chance that at some point, some sugar will get under your skin and that could cause a serious abcess.

Stick with Vitamin E or Mederma scar cream.
 
Mederma is a little pricey (costs what a bag of dope does) but it is totally worth it. It is even working on an old, hardened track and it completely erases new ones.
 
Silicone scar sheets are typically used on larger scars/healing-but-closed wounds, and if cut to size are convenient for when you wear long sleeves which brush ointments off your arms. Silicone scar sheets basically provide a washable self-adhesive layer of maximized hydration to the scar and help lessen discoloration and smooth raised scars. Yeah, sounds like overkill, but I tend to use anything that will heal my skin faster (granted the vein underneath is what takes so long to heal fully ;)). A box is $20-30, but the sheets are reusable and for the purpose of covering and healing tracks, should last a year at least. Wear the sheets under long sleeves at work, apply Scarzone/vitamin E/triple antibiotic ointments in privacy at home.
 
cotton fever

human pollution said:
So tonight, I got 2 bags of dope and brought it home to shoot up. I shot the first bag, had clean syringes, cottons and a cooker and lighter. I shot the first bag and felt pretty good. Not too high, but I felt decent. Nice rush, good clean high. The high begins to wear off so I decide to shoot my second bag. This time I use a different spoon. The spoon has been used before a few days ago and was sitting in my girlfriends purse. Before I used it, I rinsed it off with some water from a water bottle it appeared to be clean, but definitely not sterile I suppose. Then I reused my first rig from the first time I banged the dope tonight, which was only inserted one time. The dope was a little hard to suck up through the cotton, but eventually, very slowly I got all of the mixture into the rig. After hitting pretty quickly I felt a good rush and was and still am slightly high.

After the second IV, about 10 minutes later when the initial high wore off, I begin to feel feverish and like I have the chills. Now mind you, it's nothin too painful, but defnitely somethin I've never exerienced. Let me add that I am a chipper and only use a couple times a week at most and was not dope sick or feverish prior to shooting up, I also am 90% sure I have no absesses of infections in my arm, none that are visible and nothing that seemed like an issue previously to now. 20 minutes later I still feel a little buzz from the dope, but I also feel a bit feverish and uncomfortable, but nothing too too serious or painful.

I am thinking this is my first case of some minor cotton fever, considering the cotton I used from the q tips was a bit cheap and seemed like it broke apart easily. They were also sitting on top of a dresser for maybe over a week. I also think the spoon could have had some kind of bacteria on it.

The fact that I don't feel THAT awful makes me think this isn't a huge medical emergency. However, this is the first time I've experienced something like this and I am uncomfortable enough to notice.

So, does this seem as a pretty standard case of cotton fever? Or could it be something more serious? thanks for reading and I'd like some input from someone who is much more intelligent on the subject than me.

Be safe.
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Cotton Fever: is where bacteria gets into ur bloodstream and the feeling of chills etc. is ur bodys immune system responce to the bacteria to fight it off..
it doesnt have to come from cotton getting into ur blood stream
Correct me if im wrong
 
I just finished a tricky shot in which I had to register a couple of times to the point where the barrel was filled with blood. Halfway through the needle blocked, so I removed it and squirted out what I presume to be a clot and did the rest. My question, does shooting clots present a major risk of causing a thrombus or embolism?
 
Painful injection site; not sure what it could be.

I've never really had any major complications before. Until now it's been pretty generic stuff like a few cases of cotton fever, histamine reactions, one case of hitting an artery that led to no more than an hour of having a very swollen and painful hand and forearm, and a few missed shots... but they were the kind that never progress from anything more than hurting like a bitch for a moment or two. So this painful craziness is pretty much new for me.

The injection in question happened I'd say close to a week ago now. I missed a small part of the shot. After I was done with the hit, I rubbed it out - pretty vigorously, which might have been my mistake? - to try and promote absorption. All was well until the next morning, when I noticed it was sore. I was like whatever, because even though it had never happened to me, I'd heard plenty of people complain about that exact area feeling sore the next morning. Except in this case it hasn't gone away, instead it's gotten progressively worse over the course of the week. It seems like it peaked around the third day, and ever since then, it hasn't gotten WORSE per se... buuut it hasn't gotten better either. :(

Anyway it hurts pretty freaking bad. Even if I'm not touching it and fucking with it, there will be times where the pain flares up to the point where it is definitely noticeable and bothersome for a minute or two. It feels the worst when I tie off that arm and the circulation is interrupted, though I've been careful to avoid hitting anywhere near that area. I'd describe it as a sort of throbbing pain, I guess. Not a sharp pain or anything, just a kind of intense soreness. Could it be an abscess? I'm not sure, since it's not discolored and when I touch it, it feels sort of hard, like a little ball or something.

Any insight would be helpful. I'm currently on trial for some possession charges, and one of the conditions of my OR is (obviously) no drug use or involvement with people/places known for drugs. If there's any possibility of an abscess though I want to try and get to the doctor and get it taken care of as soon as possible, before something really bad happens. On the other hand, if it's just that I irritated something... or whatever... I don't want to risk jail time over something that will go away on it's own with time. I was clean the last time I saw my doctor, who is a huge douche about my drug use (even though my addiction is largely his fault, thanks to his overprescribing opiate medications back when I was naive and stupid and knew nothing about addiction... and he capitalized on the fact that I had no idea what I was getting caught up in... LOL the irony... anyway...), and if he found out I relapsed AGAIN, he is the type of person who is juuust douchey enough to potentially report it.

So yeah. Thanks in advance for whatever answers I get.
 
If you develop a fever or the abscess area begins to swell and feel warm to the touch or increases in size then you might have something to worry about. It sounds like you are focusing on it due to the other stress factors like your current legal situation. You would be getting extremely ill and eventually septic if the abscess was festering out of control.

"I don't want to risk jail time over something that will go away on it's own with time. I was clean the last time I saw my doctor, who is a huge douche about my drug use (even though my addiction is largely his fault, thanks to his overprescribing opiate medications back when I was naive and stupid and knew nothing about addiction... and he capitalized on the fact that I had no idea what I was getting caught up in... LOL the irony... anyway...), and if he found out I relapsed AGAIN, he is the type of person who is juuust douchey enough to potentially report it. "

This is something I find sort of silly. You are blaming your doctor for getting you hooked on opiates but at the same time posting about slamming street drugs because your doctor who obviously cares is critical of you relapsing and using and won't prescribe opiates to you. Why don't you talk to him about getting on suboxone while you are dealing with legal trouble so you don't end up going to jail.
 
It's been a week and it still hurts - please see a doctor. Just go to a doctor/clinic who doesn't know you. It's too hard to tell if it's infected or not over the internet.
 
Your doctor cant repot shit to anyone its against the law. But just for your peice of mind go to a walk in the box or even the emergency room. It sounds like a sterile abcess to me but only a doctor will know for sure. Seek medical help
 
xburtonchic said:
I've never really had any major complications before. Until now it's been pretty generic stuff like a few cases of cotton fever, histamine reactions, one case of hitting an artery that led to no more than an hour of having a very swollen and painful hand and forearm, and a few missed shots... but they were the kind that never progress from anything more than hurting like a bitch for a moment or two. So this painful craziness is pretty much new for me.

The injection in question happened I'd say close to a week ago now. I missed a small part of the shot. After I was done with the hit, I rubbed it out - pretty vigorously, which might have been my mistake? - to try and promote absorption. All was well until the next morning, when I noticed it was sore. I was like whatever, because even though it had never happened to me, I'd heard plenty of people complain about that exact area feeling sore the next morning. Except in this case it hasn't gone away, instead it's gotten progressively worse over the course of the week. It seems like it peaked around the third day, and ever since then, it hasn't gotten WORSE per se... buuut it hasn't gotten better either. :(

Anyway it hurts pretty freaking bad. Even if I'm not touching it and fucking with it, there will be times where the pain flares up to the point where it is definitely noticeable and bothersome for a minute or two. It feels the worst when I tie off that arm and the circulation is interrupted, though I've been careful to avoid hitting anywhere near that area. I'd describe it as a sort of throbbing pain, I guess. Not a sharp pain or anything, just a kind of intense soreness. Could it be an abscess? I'm not sure, since it's not discolored and when I touch it, it feels sort of hard, like a little ball or something.

Any insight would be helpful. I'm currently on trial for some possession charges, and one of the conditions of my OR is (obviously) no drug use or involvement with people/places known for drugs. If there's any possibility of an abscess though I want to try and get to the doctor and get it taken care of as soon as possible, before something really bad happens. On the other hand, if it's just that I irritated something... or whatever... I don't want to risk jail time over something that will go away on it's own with time. I was clean the last time I saw my doctor, who is a huge douche about my drug use (even though my addiction is largely his fault, thanks to his overprescribing opiate medications back when I was naive and stupid and knew nothing about addiction... and he capitalized on the fact that I had no idea what I was getting caught up in... LOL the irony... anyway...), and if he found out I relapsed AGAIN, he is the type of person who is juuust douchey enough to potentially report it.

So yeah. Thanks in advance for whatever answers I get.
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due to patient privacy/rights your doctor can't give any information about you without a court order. I would bite the bullet and see a doctor, chances are it'll be in and out and you might get some antibiotics. just remember not to avoid medical treatment because of probation. not only will your probation officer never find out you went, of you avoid treatment and end up short an arm. even if he did I would prefer to be alive/all limbs accounted for and in jail than be dead or lose your arm, which would require a hospital visit
 
I would go to the hospital, preferably one that doesn't have you on record as being a drug user.
You're in the states, right? You know with hipaa laws your doctor/courts won't find out.
Get it checked, don't wait. Better safe than sorry.
 
You should go to Homeless Healthcare Los Angeles, and see a doctor who isn't a douche, who can treat your injection site (yes there is a chance it might be an abscess), and they won't report you at all.
 
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