What happened to me?

[Tops]

So yesterday afternoon i was having trouble injecting a speedball (heroin and methamphetamine.)
I commonly have trouble when injecting meth because i am extra careful with making sure i am in the vein and haven't slipped out.
This level of caution results in me registering many times throughout 1 shot (bad i know) and always removing the tourniquet fully before injecting. Now i know the tourniquet should always be released, but i have trouble re-registering most of the time after i release the tourniquet. This results in me poking my vein so many times that i feel injecting slowly with the tourniquet not fully released is usually the best way for me. Although when i am injecting speed i do my best to release it because i do not want any speed making its way outside of my vein.

Yesterday while attempting the aforementioned injection i was having trouble staying in the vein after releasing the tourniquet; as i previously mentioned this is common for me.
What wasn't common was that the blood that did make its way into the barrel seemed to get thick and clot almost immediately.
Upon realizing this i unloaded everything out the back and re-filtered it into a new rig.
At this point i was able to register and complete the deed with the tourniquet about 2/3rds of the way loosened.
I am pretty sure i did not miss because i know when even the tiniest bit of speed finds its way out my vein it burns like hell.
Also i felt the expected effects of the shot and experienced a strong scent of methamphetamine (for some reason i experience smell as opposed to the taste so many other I.V users experience.) So in my experience no effects matched that of a missed hit.

Now this is the part I'm curious as to if any of you guys know what exactly may have happened.
Immediately after the injection i realized that the chosen vein, precisely where the injection occurred, (cephalic vein in my left arm) had puffed up much like an inflated balloon.
I ran my finger over the swollen area and my vein was a little sore and felt hard...almost like a tendon or something.
After rubbing the bloated area the bloated portion seemed to travel a few millimeters up stream.
This sort of terrified me and i decided that i should probably not touch the thing.
I almost drove myself to the E.R right then, but refrained from doing so after reassuring myself that superficial blood clots are rarely serious. After notifying my roommate that he should probably check on me periodically i went back to studying for finals,
and when i took a smoke break about 30 minutes later i checked the area and the lump/swollen area was gone.

So do any of you bluelighters know what possibly happened? Is this what "blowing out a vein" from excess pressure looks like?
Or could it actually have been a clot (my blood was oddly clotting while trying to re-register.)
If it likely could have been a clot should i be worried/see a doctor?
Do you think the odd occurrence with my blood could be my red blood cells exploding due to the solution?
Any advice, knowledge or thoughts on this subject would be greatly appreciated.
also i apologize for the lengthy post, I've been studying for finals for the past 18 or so hours and i may be a little sped up.

TLDR: i injected a speedball and experienced a swollen/hard vein that seemed to travel after messing with it.
The swelling/stiffness (lump?) was gone about 30 mins later.

 

[IMtrying]

you missed partially; its pretty common. I've had bumps in my arms for weeks and never worried. its NOT something you should worry about or turn yourself into the ER about but realize YOU DID MISS SOMETHING! maybe not the full shot but that surly was a miss in there. I never shot speedballs but I've shot enough dope to know every vein in my body; there are still bumps/bruises on my arm that have stories behind it.

ts a very common thing; not sure how long you've been shooting for but surprised you never had something like this happen before. it swells immediate and sometimes leave a lump. the lump can last anywhere form 2-24hrs depending; some even longer than that depending what you did and if you kept shooting after the initial shot.

you may have felt something but while shooting you may have lost that vein or something along those lines. again, ITS COMMON and nothing to worry about.

 

[Tops]

While it definitely is possible that i missed a little; isn't it pretty likely that the solution i was injecting was hypotonic resulting in my red blood cells to absorb too much water and literally burst? If this was the case i feel it may explain the sudden thickening/clotting of my blood.
From what i understand if a solution is not isotonic with your blood it can result in damage to red blood cells as the pressure between your red blood cells and the solution find a sort of equilibrium.
I also understand that my knowledge of this is rudimentary and information on this subject matter runs much deeper.
Due to my lack of depth in this subject i may be misinterpreting what is actually happening and it may not fit in with my experience at all.

i am sure there has to be some ions in both Methamphetamine HCL, and Diacetylmorphine (acetate(?)) though.
These two together almost certainly have more ions than blood.

It seems like if my red blood cells did rupture it could possibly lead to a clot forming pretty quickly.
Maybe this clot would resolve itself rather quickly too?
If you know anything about this subject, or know a bluelighter you could point in this direction who does, i would greatly appreciate it.
I'm not too worried at this point. The affected area is not even sore or red (besides some old scarring) at the moment.
I'm mostly just interested in what others think about it, and if i could get a short bio-chem lesson in the process that would be awesome.

 

[Jwilson2520]

you missed partially; its pretty common. I've had bumps in my arms for weeks and never worried. its NOT something you should worry about or turn yourself into the ER about but realize YOU DID MISS SOMETHING! maybe not the full shot but that surly was a miss in there. I never shot speedballs but I've shot enough dope to know every vein in my body; there are still bumps/bruises on my arm that have stories behind it.

ts a very common thing; not sure how long you've been shooting for but surprised you never had something like this happen before. it swells immediate and sometimes leave a lump. the lump can last anywhere form 2-24hrs depending; some even longer than that depending what you did and if you kept shooting after the initial shot.

you may have felt something but while shooting you may have lost that vein or something along those lines. again, ITS COMMON and nothing to worry about.

Yea i agree i used to get those a lot even when i didnt miss n they go away in like a day on their own