Stimulants missed shot in hand, numb, swollen

First shot ever, friend went in between the two outside fingers in my right hand, went kind into the knuckle area(between knuckles, obviously), which i thought was weird but he said it works well. Pulled back and didn't register, pushed in further and did register, shot a fair amount, gave a mild rush, with a 10 minute come up period of being very high, very lazy and kinda nodding. Not like meth has ever been for me before. Hand got swollen and red, I have no feeling between those two fingers, and pinky in numb, as well as down the bone in my arm a bit, but that could just be me messing with my own head. Kind of stings a bit. Been an hour, isn't seeming to get worse, will it most likely just bruise? And I know, "go to a doctor" is the answer to every missed shot type question, but im looking for past experiences like this that maby went very bad later? let me know..

EDIT-Next day- numbness staying in two outside fingers mostly, and there's swelling in the hand behind the pinky to middle finger tendons, as well as bruising, as expected. Found a bubble of skin sticking up by my elbow, and thinking it was swelling, put my arm up and rubbed it. It vanished immediately and almost immediately gave me an unexpected head rush. Rubbed all over my lower arm with it up in the air and got some much more minor rushes. Still in disbelief... but can't argue with getting high right now from drugs I did yesterday

and the area is red and inflamed. just down to where the two tendons in your hand meet (right pinky and ring f.). Hmmm

This is a classic textbook example of why I avoid needles like the plague. The rush and the subsequently more powerful high isn't worth the health risks. I know you don't want to hear this but go to the doctor, only they can really tell you what's good. Best of luck and I hope this serves as a lesson learned.

Heat and massage the area helps to disperse any missed crap festering. That's what I do. It'll take the swelling down. Heat on and off obviously. If it doesn't go down an bruise or looks infected see a doc , hell you should prolly go see one anyway but since u asked specifically to NOT get that answer there u go.

DonStatus said:

This is a classic textbook example of why I avoid needles like the plague. The rush and the subsequently more powerful high isn't worth the health risks. I know you don't want to hear this but go to the doctor, only they can really tell you what's good. Best of luck and I hope this serves as a lesson learned.

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THat's some good reasoning haha, you seem to be smarter than me. refer to next reply..

livetheopiatedream said:

Heat and massage the area helps to disperse any missed crap festering. That's what I do. It'll take the swelling down. Heat on and off obviously. If it doesn't go down an bruise or looks infected see a doc , hell you should prolly go see one anyway but since u asked specifically to NOT get that answer there u go.

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That made a big difference, thanks. It'll be bruised a while but after a few hours it got a lot better, feeling came back to most of my arm.. Between the two tendons in my hand is the only real messed up spot, obviously. Do people get a slightly numb arm from a fat glass shot anyway? Several tweakers told me they do.

If it's bad tomorrow I'll go to my doc, I've known him like 10 years it'd just be a bitch to explain.. But if needed I will go. Thanks you two.

Be carefull not to fuck around with that area too much, I've shot there before, as well as in the vein that runs between the forefinger and thumb (actually both are part of the cephalic vein). These areas are dangerous as you often have to push the syringe in at an angle that is much steeper than normal, and when shooting between the knuckles, you really have no visuals. It's very easy to hit a nerve, which you definately want to avoid. I actually have lost feeling in part of my hand after only briefly using those spots... It's slowly coming back, but for me it was a wake up call. I'm an artist and I can't afford to fuck up my hands, no matter how good the rush.

If you're going to do this though, use short tip, 30-31 gauge 1/2 mL syringes. You don't want to use a 1/2 inch pin on those veins or you're going to hit something nasty.

However, if this is your first shot, I have to say your friend is an asshole. This is such a dangerous place to shoot considering you have both of you arms, including the Median basilic and median cephalic veins, which are very easy to hit, and if whoever is fixing you up has any skill, should be able to hit without leaving a mark.

Do not shoot into the hands, ESPECIALLY when you are an IV novice. I'm not tryin to chastise you, I'm actually just pissed that whoever you were with suggested this-I'm guessing because he/she thinks it's less noticeable... Well if your hand starts to swell up and you lose all or partial mobility it's going to be a lot more obvious, and take a while longer to go away than a tiny dot on your upper forearm.

Znegative, Thanks for the detailed response! You're right, they thought it was less noticable than the arms, which I thought was stupid. They're probably completely unaware of the dangers. All they want is a spot that isnt noticable, any ideas on what to tell this "asshole"? They refuse to use the inside main area of their arms (where I think of as normal). Wouldn't want him really fucking up himself...

Just make them aware of the dangers, but in the end their choices are their own, and yours are your responsibility. I hope nothing too bad comes of this, and as everyone else has sad, get to the doctor at the first sign of this getting any worse.

If you do choose to shoot again (which I don't advocate, but I know a lot of people do it, so no judgements) just choose a safer location for yourself.

bronson said:

Just make them aware of the dangers, but in the end their choices are their own, and yours are your responsibility. I hope nothing too bad comes of this, and as everyone else has sad, get to the doctor at the first sign of this getting any worse.

If you do choose to shoot again (which I don't advocate, but I know a lot of people do it, so no judgements) just choose a safer location for yourself.

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I agree with everything Bronson says. There is a reason that when blood is drawn, it's 99% of the time not drawn from between your knuckles, just tell him that. Safety is more important, and if you don't want to cause track marks, use a small gauged needle (at least 29-30g), and rotate the injection sites, in your arms. Once I learned proper injection technique, as long as I used a new syringe, I didn't have to worry about bruising, swelling etc.. But, even if you're real good at hitting, the hands are unpredictable. I've done shots, not missed, and my hand would still blow up. It's just a bad spot, and I would have never considered using it, had I not trashed my better veins from wreckless behaviour.

Go for the crook of ur arm. Even a beginner can find that big mofo themselves lol. Just spend some time investigating the area at ur crook urself n find the vein. Use a tourniquet if ur not sure u feel it, as u put it on and remove you'll feel the vein inflate-deflate. I find that people have on one side the vein runs closer to the surface than the other and or one is more in the center of the crook relative to the other side. If this is the Case the easiest is the closer to the surface more central option. Also superficial veins in ur forearm with a tight tourniquet and swinging ur arm in a circle after you've got it on will get them bulging. You'll actually feel all the blood rush there when u do this. But careful these veins roll easier there thus require more experience but ea I have no idea why ur friend is choosing tiny ass hand veins

Edit- oh ya and I tie off at the mid upper arm for a crook shot and below the elbow for a forearm one
Also since amp's r vasoconstrictors u might have better luck w larger veins so in this case, crook is the better option, and no problem I'm glad it worked for u, my experience is ony with opiates but I correctly assumed procedure is the same for both types of miss.

Anyone do something similarly stupid to me, then find a fat skin bubble(that looks like swelling, but smoother) up their arm a foot or so the next day? I thought it was swelling, and put my arm in the air and rubbed it for a few seconds and surprisingly it vanished, and I got a fat head rush a few seconds later. As in, a bigger rush than the shot gave me (shot got me higher, but only had a mild-moderate rush followed by a few minute come up). Felt like I blew a decent line..

Looked over my arm, found another slighly similar spot, rubbed it and the rest of my lower arm for a while and got a few much more minor rushes. WTF?? Made my pupils bigger, heart rate raised, woke me the fuck up. I'm not one to get a placebo, especially when all I think I'm doing is rubbing swelling. Arm is now tender in those spots but not bad(feels loose to touch, and slight burning/sore feel, noticably painfull but helps to move it around every few minutes) and some numbness has subsided (in the lower arm, especially, not so much he fingers). This was the better part of 20 hours after the shot that I found these spots. Only extra info I have is that I thought there was a small bubble ( a couple units(units the correct term? This is US, whatever they use to mark needles at most) in the shot, but the shooter claimed it was all pressure from missing at first(he didn't take the needle out between not registering, then doing deeper(and a little angeled..) and registering, showing blood the second time. Good chance he's right, and even it was a bubble it wasn't some 10 unit thing, just big enough to mention in all this weirdness.

I can't help with that one I think someone with extensive stimulant experience and some general medical knowledge would serve u best for an answer!
Seems like a placebo but I dot know. I just feel like misses don't travel and produce Mini rushes...
Just my .02$

livetheopiatedream- I completely agree, if I someone saying what I just posed, I'd probably say "It's all in your head, placebo, etc etc". Thats why I'm still so shocked. First off I'm shocked there was some bubble a foot down my arm from the injection site(like I said, just assumed it was swelling, didn't know why that far away), and second, that it did ANYTHING psychoactive is mind blowing to me.. But it did, it's not in my head, as I said I didn't expect it at all then it hit me not long after rubbing the bubble away. My friend in my house today immediately asked if I'd just done speed when I walked in his room(shortly after this bubble shit) "with fat pupils, talking faster than I ever would in the AM!" I was tired and a little slow before rubbing that bump away.. Idk, weird shit, I only really posted it out of curiousity, hoping anybody had any possible explanation, knowing full well it'll look like placebo in the eyes of most of you. I don't feel like misses would do that either, I actually felt like I was somehow lieing to myself the first minute because I was so shocked, even though I hadn't expected that to happen at all in the first place. The outside of my lower arm went from being all numb(for nealy 20 hours) to feeling way closer to normal again not long after that bubble/swelling/whatever was rubbed away, not sure if that means anything of not.

For your crook shots T.O.Dream, do you tie off between the shoulder and bicep?

god damn it's so crazy to listen to you guys talk about your veins like your utensils i'm so terrified of ever falling into IV drug use...crap.

rules- I agree, I'll never do what I did again, nobody is pricking me but me and my MDs from now on (i've shot for other people in their arms well before I ever had anything recreational shot into me). If I were to shoot again, I'd do it myself in a smarter area, always making sure its a brand new clean obviously. I feel like a cluck for that stupidity, my judgement after not sleeping much for a while isn't too amazing. Regardless, I've learned from this..

Tie off between shoulder and bicep for crooks, and below elbow for forearm n hand shots
And maybe u rubbed out some of the drug so it could be absorbed but when i miss opiates and rub a bubble away from a miss, and I'm dope sick, I don't get well lol, so Clearly no drug is being released , but that's with opiates. I dunno about the potential for ur experienc to b anything but placebo (if amp'scould legit be released later on or not.... Maybe another BLer with more amp experience would know. Try some tweaker threads and pm someone who seems knowledgeable and shoots maybe? Someone who is frequent poster, lots of accounts people don't check anymore!

I avoid needles at all costs.
No rush is worth a 30,000$ hospital bill.

Canada=free health care, lucky 4 me

Every meth shooter I know including myself, have felt mini rushes/highs from misses. Whenever I got to jail by the 2nd day if I start rubbing a miss it gets me high. But only if I rub it. If I leave it alone it goes away eventually. I figured this out by accident. Just rubbing a miss cus it hurt and out of the blue get a mini rush/high. I was intrigued so tried it another time same results. Asked others about it and all said yes same thing

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