Heroin iv heroin into hand, swelling in finger..

after SWIM iv'd his heroin into his hand.. which was definetly a hit his finger began to swell immediately and some of the rest of his hand began to rash.. he was worried for a while but the swelling has begun to subside and rash was completely gone within 20min.. he'd like to know why this happened hes been using the same vein in his hand for months and today the weird reaction I described above happened.. any thoughts or insight would be greatly appreciated by my friend thank you p.s new to the site sorry if I did this incorrectly

this happens occasionally when IVing heroin, when my girl was shooting heavily she would have the same sort of problem once every two or three weeks or so, only it would usually be her entire arm and hand that would swell up. we're not exactly sure what causes it: partially missed shot, dirty cotton, dirty dope, dirty needle, dirty cooker, dirty hands or skin before shooting, who knows? in my girl's case it seems to be primarily histamine-mediated and often taking a diphenhydramine, loratazine, cetirizine, etc. as soon as it happens will significantly help with symptoms if ingested immediately afterward (she can usually tell when it's going to happen within a minute or so after shooting). if you happen to have prednisone or other steriod anti-inflammatories around, those can help too. while annoying i don't think it's anything to worry about, you should find the symptoms will subside over the course of a few hours. if the swelling and allergic reaction doesn't seem to be abating even given anti-histamines you should probably go see your doctor.

Those veins are very fragile, if used a lot, and especially if you depress the plunger too fast, they can kind of blow out and fluid and leak. So you'll see blood registering but you're still missing as well.

Be very careful with those veins in your hand, etc. Use a very fine tipped syringe and be gentle.

As a rule I didn't use my hands or feet unless it was a emergency. As Mr. S said, the veins in there are tiny and very easy to blow out. Plus there's tons of nerves. It's dicey and potentially really painful.
Even when I was 100% sure I had hit I would still have some degree of swelling in my hand or foot.
Your reaction doesn't sound like anything to worry about. I would just give that spot a break. If it's your favorite vein and it's one of the bigger ones in your hand, you can probably trace it a ways down your arm and use it there. Same vein, different spot.

i agree with the other posts. i used to use my hand all the time. i was using a full 1 ML rig too, typically almost all the way full within reason. so i used to see this happen from time to time. like u said, sure that i hit too... sometimes the swelling was isolated in small areas too and would itch mildly.

on a side note i can no longer safely use my same spot on my hand after giving it a break for a couple months, and then blowing it ever so easily when i started trying to use it again. be very careful, i considered myself an expert at using my hand too. scars super easy too, u gotta really be careful.

also be aware of poking thru, i mean its not like u can see where your needle tip is so its easy to accidentally go to far in or too deep, even the slightest. and thats all it takes to have at the very least a leak.

Hand veins are a bitch to register. They move like crazy and it is really too easy to go right through them.

I love the accessibility factor though.

Missing causes some of the worst pain ever. Reminds me of arthritis...

oh yeah..i can definitely relate. i don't have any exact answer, but i've had it happen to me a couple time. then it starts to itch, but i always felt a small rush whenever this happened. i always summed it up as a missed some of the shot somehow.

^^ ya. Pretty sure even if you don't really miss, if you dig around too much the vein leaks a bit and you end up with a histamine reaction.

Anyway, the veins on the side of the hand above the wrist are a lot fatter, even tho it's a bit awkward positioning your arm right to hit them.