Just thought i'd share my own botched-injection horror story.
So i've been an IV user for almost 5 years now, and when I started i read all the harm reduction stuff i could, so i know what to do and what not to do when it comes to injecting.. However a few months ago I just did NOT have any access to new, clean needles.. In my state you can just buy them at any ol' wal-greens or CVS, but I had some legal issues at the one in my town last summer, and a video tape was pulled that showed me buying some rigs and is being used as evidence against me now in a hypo possession charge... lame..
So anyway, I only had one rig left, and 3 bags of dope left. I cooked it all up and did it.. Now, this rig had been used easily 15+ times.. but the thing is, yeah it was dull, and i'm sure i did damage to my veins because of it, but the real problem was that the tip was SO old that when I went to pull it out, the tip BROKE OFF!! So there I am, with 3 bags of dope and a needle tip floating around somewhere in my arm in the crux of my elbow..
And i'm almost embarrassed to admit that the story gets even worse from here... I figured it wasn't ALL the way in the vein, since I could feel it, and I was still alive, it wasn't moving anywhere yet.. So i did a quick google search and found out how serious the situation was.. But unfortunately I don't have health insurance, and I sure as shit didn't want to goto the hospital for this if i didn't have to.. My girlfriend wanted me to, but I had her take me to a hardware store instead and bought the strongest magnet I could find, and some razor blades..
I got home and called a friend who I knew had a couple of grams of raw dope left and told her what I was about to do so she brought me some more and her last clean rig and I did it and got VERY fucked up.. And then i sterilized everything and proceded to tear the shit out of my arm trying to get at it.. The magnet didn't work at all, so I was just going at it with a razor blade and tweezers.. And as a side note, I've got to say what an AMAZING painkiller heroin actually is, I was at least 1.5cm into my fucking arm and I couldn't feel a thing, it didn't hurt at all..
But anyway, after almost an hour of trying (it took me a long time because i kept nodding out), i had only managed to work the needle tip deeper and deeper into my arm every try.. So finally I went to a hospital out of town, had a minor out-patient surgery and a $5000 bill and got it removed.. the ER doctor told me that with how deep the cuts were and how long i'd been going at it, i probably would have bled out if i didn't come in when i did..
So there ya go, there's my horror story.. No more old fucking rigs for me!! It's not even so much the danger that bugs me, cuz shit ya know, i shoot fucking heroin, i risk my life at least somewhat everyday, but it's that.. shit, i can't afford $5000 fucking dollars!!