Dissociatives Ketamine IM Injection - red line around injection site. Pictures.

[TheChoicesWeMake]

Should I be worried? The injection is either from yesterday or the day before that.



The first picture is the one I'm concerned with.
The second picture is another injection site, and I have a few like that one that are a bit blue under the skin, but not with distinct red circle around the injection site, like in the first picture.

I used sterile equipment, but I was far from sober when I did it, so who knows if i made a few mistakes.
Sterile equipment. Alcohol on injection site before injecting. Sterile water heated to 78 degress celcius (172 fahrenheit). No micronfilter, but Ketamine dissolved into totally clear liquid, and I've used this Ketamine for IM before.

Also, I injected a lot of liquid. The most was 2,5ml in one site, and i remember only going about 1,5cm (0,6 inch) into the muscle.
I know 2,5 ml is too much, and that I should have gone further into the muscle, but what's done is done.

I know some mistakes were made here, but thank you so much for taking a look at the pictures, and giving me some advice. Highly appreciated!


I might be done with Ketamine after this. I cant seem to get a good high of it anymore, even with months inbetweeen. I litterally injected 375mg Ketamine in one go, and I was still able to stand up and walk (kind of anyway). I remember some time ago, I could get totally sucked into a series I was watching, thinking I was actually a part of the series and having funny and strange experiences like that. I don't really get that anymore.
And with all the research showing it causes bladder damage and all kinds of things.

 

[SKL]

Looks fine. Honestly not even sure what you're worried about. An infection would be more apparent—red, swollen, hot, painful. Not necessarily (but probably) all four but that kind of stuff.

What I'm seeing in the picture is more like injection site trauma and slight inflammation due to poor technique. That just looks like an i.m. injection given by somebody who isn't particularly good at it. Trust me, if you had an injection site abscess, you'd know something was wrong.

As to what you said about doing it wrong: Max for i.m. injections you can actually usually get away with 2-3mL no problem depending on muscle size. Make sure you are doing it at a 90 degree angle and Z track method. Look up videos for training nurses. You need to push the needle in forcefully but gently in one go, without hesitation, then aspirate, inject and pull it out again. No jabbing but also no slow pushing. No letting it move around in there.

But they should be at least 1 in deep. You didn't do that, but it's not going to kill you. Possibly you got some of the dose subq not i.m. just don't make a habit of injecting so shallow. It also hurts more! Very common misstep though as insulin rigs are super easy to get but proper needles for i.m. slightly harder (easily ordered online though; look for sites catering to steroid users.)

 

[bingey]

Put alcohol compresses on it if you are really worried even a wet clean washcloth will make it go away faster

 

[TheChoicesWeMake]

Looks fine. Honestly not even sure what you're worried about. An infection would be more apparent—red, swollen, hot, painful. Not necessarily (but probably) all four but that kind of stuff.

What I'm seeing in the picture is more like injection site trauma and slight inflammation due to poor technique. That just looks like an i.m. injection given by somebody who isn't particularly good at it. Trust me, if you had an injection site abscess, you'd know something was wrong.

As to what you said about doing it wrong: Max for i.m. injections you can actually usually get away with 2-3mL no problem depending on muscle size. Make sure you are doing it at a 90 degree angle and Z track method. Look up videos for training nurses. You need to push the needle in forcefully but gently in one go, without hesitation, then aspirate, inject and pull it out again. No jabbing but also no slow pushing. No letting it move around in there.

But they should be at least 1 in deep. You didn't do that, but it's not going to kill you. Possibly you got some of the dose subq not i.m. just don't make a habit of injecting so shallow. It also hurts more! Very common misstep though as insulin rigs are super easy to get but proper needles for i.m. slightly harder (easily ordered online though; look for sites catering to steroid users.)

Thanks for taking the time to write some solid advice! You put my mind at ease, and I'll use better technique next time. And possible get a smaller syringe. If there will be a next time. It hardly seems worth it anymore, having to inject such ridiculuosly high doses, even with months inbetween use.

Put alcohol compresses on it if you are really worried even a wet clean washcloth will make it go away faster

Thanks! I wiped it with alcohol and put a bandaid on it. That's what I had at hand, and it'll have to do for now

 

[MsDiz]

Solid advice @SKL

 

[SKL]

And possible get a smaller syringe.

Syringe size is not your problem, other than being too short. Your pproblem is technique. If I had to guess you are not injecting at a perfect 90⁰ angle and/or slightly wiggling the needle around as you're going in or out. As to size, in fact you should probably be using 23g or 25g x 1in for deltoid and 1½ for gluteal. Bigger than insulin needles but with proper technique you'll be fine. Large gauge needles leave worse track marks for IV usage, definitely, so you want smaller there (but larger means easier to register) but it's less of an issue (apart from hurting slightly more) for IM, and no issue all if you use "Z-track" technique. You don't strictly need this large (lower number) a gauge of needle, but they are more readily available with longer needles, which you do strictly need to give a proper IM injection—most recreational drug users use insulin rigs. They are Doing It Wrong. (You do need the larger bore needles, down to 21g, for injecting oils like steroids and long acting antipsychotics, but here beyond our scope here.)

 

[TheChoicesWeMake]

Syringe size is not your problem, other than being too short. Your pproblem is technique. If I had to guess you are not injecting at a perfect 90⁰ angle and/or slightly wiggling the needle around as you're going in or out. As to size, in fact you should probably be using 23g or 25g x 1in for deltoid and 1½ for gluteal. Bigger than insulin needles but with proper technique you'll be fine. Large gauge needles leave worse track marks for IV usage, definitely, so you want smaller there (but larger means easier to register) but it's less of an issue (apart from hurting slightly more) for IM, and no issue all if you use "Z-track" technique. You don't strictly need this large (lower number) a gauge of needle, but they are more readily available with longer needles, which you do strictly need to give a proper IM injection—most recreational drug users use insulin rigs. They are Doing It Wrong. (You do need the larger bore needles, down to 21g, for injecting oils like steroids and long acting antipsychotics, but here beyond our scope here.)

Ok, my equpiment is probably good enough as it is then, seeing I was using 23g needle. Also, I do put it in at an 90 degree angle. But definitely some mistakes were made, that I'll correct next time.
Certainly I wiggle the needle around as I'm injecting. I inject the liquid over as much as 60 seconds to avoid pain.
I find it hard to keep the needle still while injecting, especially when it's not my first dose.
Things to correct. I looked at the Z track method, and I'll try it next time.

Thanks again for the advice!

 

[Zephyn]

ive done K injections with needles that bent and i fixed them, boiled K that had spilled out of a vial on the floor and filtered it thru just a piece of cotton, as well as doing shots while in the jungle with no sanitary measures, and never had a problem. when i did the K that spilled when I sobered up i hit myself with an antibiotic shot in the area, so maybe that prevented an abcess. but yours looks completely normal. if you are worried next time, use some alcohol or iodine first. i almost never use alcohol or iodine if i have showered recently and with hundreds if not a thousand shots of K, never had an issue.

as for the tolerance, yeah, its unfortunate, but it seems K causes permatolerance even with months or a year long break, which personally im convinced HAS to be a type of brain damage/long term neurological change. ive had a problem with standing up and walking around while on khole doses, and i notice now i just get short hour-long blackouts usually at those doses (200-300mg) instead of a khole trip. it can cause some problems, and ive injured myself and woken up in a pool of blood, or knocked over a table, or worse wandered around and been discovered by sober people.

as for getting the right needles, farm supply stores have rigs for animals that are perfect for IM.

 

[σ1R]

Should I be worried? The injection is either from yesterday or the day before that.

Looks fine to me but I am not a doctor and this is not medical advice. It happened to me once, I suspect I might have went through a small blood vessel while inserting the needle. It wasn't painful and cleared after a couple of days.

You really should be using micron filters, though. There are many ways to harm yourself by injecting street powders, most of which are invisible to the naked eye.

Also, I injected a lot of liquid. The most was 2,5ml in one site, and i remember only going about 1,5cm (0,6 inch) into the muscle.
I know 2,5 ml is too much, and that I should have gone further into the muscle, but what's done is done.

2.5 mL is not too much for i.m., you can even push it up to 5 mL in the thigh. However your needle is inadequate, and it's very likely you injected into adipous tissue instead of the muscle. You need at the very least 1" long needles (more if you are anything but skinny esp. if going in the thigh).

I litterally injected 375mg Ketamine in one go, and I was still able to stand up and walk (kind of anyway).

Either you have a huge tolerance, or your product is cut with something inactive.

 

[Zephyn]

Looks fine to me but I am not a doctor and this is not medical advice. It happened to me once, I suspect I might have went through a small blood vessel while inserting the needle. It wasn't painful and cleared after a couple of days.

You really should be using micron filters, though. There are many ways to harm yourself by injecting street powders, most of which are invisible to the naked eye.

2.5 mL is not too much for i.m., you can even push it up to 5 mL in the thigh. However your needle is inadequate, and it's very likely you injected into adipous tissue instead of the muscle. You need at the very least 1" long needles (more if you are anything but skinny esp. if going in the thigh).


Either you have a huge tolerance, or your product is cut with something inactive.

thats somewhat normal. i also can do 250+ mg and have been known to walk around even though im not aware of it. it happens with extended use over time. and for me, i have this effect even with sealed vials, so i know its not cut. also half an inch is good enough for injection into the shoulder

 

[TheChoicesWeMake]

ive done K injections with needles that bent and i fixed them, boiled K that had spilled out of a vial on the floor and filtered it thru just a piece of cotton, as well as doing shots while in the jungle with no sanitary measures, and never had a problem. when i did the K that spilled when I sobered up i hit myself with an antibiotic shot in the area, so maybe that prevented an abcess. but yours looks completely normal. if you are worried next time, use some alcohol or iodine first. i almost never use alcohol or iodine if i have showered recently and with hundreds if not a thousand shots of K, never had an issue.

as for the tolerance, yeah, its unfortunate, but it seems K causes permatolerance even with months or a year long break, which personally im convinced HAS to be a type of brain damage/long term neurological change. ive had a problem with standing up and walking around while on khole doses, and i notice now i just get short hour-long blackouts usually at those doses (200-300mg) instead of a khole trip. it can cause some problems, and ive injured myself and woken up in a pool of blood, or knocked over a table, or worse wandered around and been discovered by sober people.

as for getting the right needles, farm supply stores have rigs for animals that are perfect for IM.

It's a relief to hear that it's not so easy to get abscess. It's less of a relief to hear about your theory about brain damage. But maybe you're right. Lol I agree that the worst thing that can happen is meeting a sober person.
I would also agree that my trips on those doses are more like blackouts.

Looks fine to me but I am not a doctor and this is not medical advice. It happened to me once, I suspect I might have went through a small blood vessel while inserting the needle. It wasn't painful and cleared after a couple of days.

You really should be using micron filters, though. There are many ways to harm yourself by injecting street powders, most of which are invisible to the naked eye.

2.5 mL is not too much for i.m., you can even push it up to 5 mL in the thigh. However your needle is inadequate, and it's very likely you injected into adipous tissue instead of the muscle. You need at the very least 1" long needles (more if you are anything but skinny esp. if going in the thigh).


Either you have a huge tolerance, or your product is cut with something inactive.

That's good advice! Thank you! I hear you with the micron filter. I actually have them, I just don't use them because the K dissolves into perfectly clear liquid. Honestly I don't think that it's cut. It looks genuine and I've been able to get high of the same K, on much smaller doses.
It could be that it has lost potency, but that's very unlikely right? I assume powders like K can last for years.

My theory is that I just learned to handle myself in that state. And I think I expect to get something out of K, that it just doesn't provide anymore, because the state isn't as magical and strange to me anymore.

I actually enjoyed K a lot more when I snorted it in smaller doses. But I don't wan't to go back to that route of administration.

 

[Zephyn]

It's a relief to hear that it's not so easy to get abscess. It's less of a relief to hear about your theory about brain damage. But maybe you're right. Lol I agree that the worst thing that can happen is meeting a sober person.
I would also agree that my trips on those doses are more like blackouts.

That's good advice! Thank you! I hear you with the micron filter. I actually have them, I just don't use them because the K dissolves into perfectly clear liquid. Honestly I don't think that it's cut. It looks genuine and I've been able to get high of the same K, on much smaller doses.
It could be that it has lost potency, but that's very unlikely right? I assume powders like K can last for years.

My theory is that I just learned to handle myself in that state. And I think I expect to get something out of K, that it just doesn't provide anymore, because the state isn't as magical and strange to me anymore.

I actually enjoyed K a lot more when I snorted it in smaller doses. But I don't wan't to go back to that route of administration.

i havent been able to get a straight answer from anyone, but personally i dont see how something can cause permenant tolerance without it being brain damage. i mean that constitutes a long term neurological change, no?

 

[TheChoicesWeMake]

i havent been able to get a straight answer from anyone, but personally i dont see how something can cause permenant tolerance without it being brain damage. i mean that constitutes a long term neurological change, no?

You could be right. To be honest I think it's more that I learned to handle myself in that state, as I wrote.

Actually generally I don't feel like drugs do a lot for me anymore. I don't know what happened, but I feel like after I've been on Suboxone, drugs don't do a whole lot for me anymore.
I can take ridiculous doses of not just K, but other things as well, even with breaks inbetween.

 

[Zephyn]

i have the same problem, with gabapentinoids and ketamine in particular, as well as THC. I'd agree with you that I just learned to handle myself but it seems to be devoid of the psychedelic mindfuck that was a k-hole. youd think it would cause more than a blackout if it wasnt a tolerance issue. low doses are still mildly trippy but i just cannot hole, only blackout.

 

[TheChoicesWeMake]

i have the same problem, with gabapentinoids and ketamine in particular, as well as THC. I'd agree with you that I just learned to handle myself but it seems to be devoid of the psychedelic mindfuck that was a k-hole. youd think it would cause more than a blackout if it wasnt a tolerance issue. low doses are still mildly trippy but i just cannot hole, only blackout.

Yeah I totally see what you mean. I don't feel like I can hole either, allthough I'm not even sure I've ever been there to be honest. I haven't done enough research on the hole, to know if I've been in it lol.
But I agree that my only options are mildly trippy or blackout, and I can't seem to hit that spot inbetween. And it doesn't have the same psychedelic edge to it at all, as you write. It's a shame, because I felt like K was pretty harmless and fun for a while. And I like drugs that don't have a bad comedown or hangover effect, so I thought K would be something I could do from time to time.

 

[Zephyn]

Yeah I totally see what you mean. I don't feel like I can hole either, allthough I'm not even sure I've ever been there to be honest. I haven't done enough research on the hole, to know if I've been in it lol.
But I agree that my only options are mildly trippy or blackout, and I can't seem to hit that spot inbetween. And it doesn't have the same psychedelic edge to it at all, as you write. It's a shame, because I felt like K was pretty harmless and fun for a while. And I like drugs that don't have a bad comedown or hangover effect, so I thought K would be something I could do from time to time.

How much K have you done exactly? Ive never gone over 5 grams in a session, and used to do that like once a week for a few months, but after that its only been about a gram or two a month for about 5-10 years.

As for the hole, I think you'd know if you've been there, and if you are not sure, you might want to try a different source for the K! in a *good* hole, you forget you've done K, forget who you are, forget what it is to be human, and experience rapidly shifting interaction with some form of intelligence or maybe its the mind reckoning and trying to figure out wtf is going on/who they are.

i wish i could just say "fuck K" but its the only antidepressant/anxiolytic that works for me and tends to work for at least a week if not two weeks from a single session. its also my favorite recreational drug, even without the trips these days i highly enjoy it.

 

[TheChoicesWeMake]

How much K have you done exactly? Ive never gone over 5 grams in a session, and used to do that like once a week for a few months, but after that its only been about a gram or two a month for about 5-10 years.

As for the hole, I think you'd know if you've been there, and if you are not sure, you might want to try a different source for the K! in a *good* hole, you forget you've done K, forget who you are, forget what it is to be human, and experience rapidly shifting interaction with some form of intelligence or maybe its the mind reckoning and trying to figure out wtf is going on/who they are.

i wish i could just say "fuck K" but its the only antidepressant/anxiolytic that works for me and tends to work for at least a week if not two weeks from a single session. its also my favorite recreational drug, even without the trips these days i highly enjoy it.

Wow, 5 grams is way out of my league :-D The most I've done in one go is around one gram.

When you describe the hole I can recognise it, so I've been there. Forgot who I was, thought I was someone in a movie etc. And often a strange sence of "talking" to the Ketamine, like it's a being. But I don't get there anymore.

I'll admit that I also still enjoy it, even without that effect :-D But in a different way. So I'm just a bit dissapointed that it has lost it's magic glow.

It's nice if you can use it as an antidepressant! Then it make sence for you to continue using it. Actually I've noticed that it has that effect on me aswell, but only sometimes. I feel refreshed for some days after. Not in a major way though.

By the way, I want to ask you. When you prepare a syringe, do you suck the liquid into the syringe, with the needle on the syringe? Or do you suck it into the syringe, and then put the needle on the syringe?
I've been doing the first one, but I'm thinking the other one makes more sense

 

[Zephyn]

you know, now that i look, i have a discolored bruise and some other discoloration slightly below where the injection was from my K session a few days ago. no pain, but ive never had this sort of discoloration away from the site of injection before, or even a bruise. i usually suck it straight up with the needle, especially from a vial (there would be no other way)

 

[MsDiz]

It's a relief to hear that it's not so easy to get abscess

No offence to @Zephyn but the fact that he/she hasn’t gotten an abscess or worse is a mystery to me. Please don’t think that it’s good practice to do ANYTHING that they have written. It is not. Your biology is different and you might not be as lucky with poor IM practice.

Things can go south very quickly with infection, especially when a person is injecting.

Edit to add, just seen the post above mine... hmmmm

 

[Zephyn]

No offence to @Zephyn but the fact that he/she hasn’t gotten an abscess or worse is a mystery to me. Please don’t think that it’s good practice to do ANYTHING that they have written. It is not. Your biology is different and you might not be as lucky with poor IM practice.

Things can go south very quickly with infection, especially when a person is injecting.

Edit to add, just seen the post above mine... hmmmm

in my defense, the time i decided to inject the shit off the floor i was fucked up out of my mind on a bunch of psychedelics. only afterwards did it occur to me that i would have needed a micron filter PLUS the heat to be safe. just got veeeery lucky.