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  • AADD Moderators: swilow | Vagabond696

Weird swelling after heroin injection

Also, how can I avoid this/fix this? If I know what causes this maybe I can remedy this somehow? Or should I just stop using the sites I get the reaction at? Happens mostly in my feet, and like I said the location is pretty random it happens in multiple spots, doesn't last more than 20 mins tho and goes away
 
I think it's just a histamine reaction and like you said, maybe a minor miss. I wouldn't shoot in your feet though, it's a bad place for many reasons including bacteria, very far from heart and small veins are easier to miss in. Are you micron filtering your hydromorphone pills before injecting them (if you're getting them in pill form that is)?
 
Same thing happend to me the very first time I shot heroin aswell. Didn't miss, there were no problems, just small bumps that swelled up that ran up from the crook of my arm to my wrist.
 
No I'm not micron filtering, I just use cottons, do u think I'm getting "filler" in my shot cause I'm not using micron filters? I've always known its better to use the filters I guess I've just never capitalized on getting some (micron filters). Will this help? Do u think I'm getting a reaction cause filler is getting thru the cotton?
 
You are most definitely getting filler in your shot and therefor your circulatory system if your shooting pills thats for sure. Ive heard you guys(Americans that is, hydromorph is very rare here in Australia unfortunately) say that its ok to shoot Dilaudid because it mixes up clear but its most definitely not. You should definitely get your hands on some micron filters even if you have to get them off the net. We are very lucky in that our needle exchanges(most of them anyway) give out micron filters for free, they are an invaluable piece of equipment for IDU's, even if your just shooting street drugs and not pills. I use them when injecting speed/meth, heroin and pills because the blue 0.22um ones filter bacteria as well as particles.

Definitely get your hands on some. When I was addicted to oxy I started using them and very quickly noticed my health and circulation getting better.... Stay safe :)
 
^ Really? I've never seen micron filters for free anywhere, I've managed to buy some, but that's certainly not common from my experience.

If you're shooting pills, especially if you're shooting them regularly, you really should be using micron filters.
 
I know exactly what you're talking about and I've tried to reasearch a few times to find out what it was and I came up with nothing. This actually just happened to me and it's definitely not BC the h is cut with something strange or anything bc I use dilauded and it's happened to me a few times randomly. As you're pushing the shot in it starts to turn hot then it starts to burn and turn my skin white then when you take off the tie off the burning stops and turns to itching and then it turns to swelling. I've noticed that this only has happened to me when I'm going for a vein in anywhere in my hands or thumbs. I've been told that I hit an artery or that the vein is just really small and that's why it happens but I still have no answer to why this happens but it does go away in a few hours. I noticed this thread was created a few years ago so if anyone has any new information since then it would be appreciated.
 
^ Really? I've never seen micron filters for free anywhere, I've managed to buy some, but that's certainly not common from my experience.

If you're shooting pills, especially if you're shooting them regularly, you really should be using micron filters.

The main needle exchange in my city used to hand them out for free. Unfortunately they were hit with a funding cut, so now the filters are $1 each, but it's still worth it to preserve your health.
 
ADail : what you describe happens to me when some of the heroin leaks to the surrounding tissue. My veins are really bad , as I have been using black tar for many years and when I was younger I wasn't as careful as I should've been. Sometimes, when using a small vein, it registers and it's good for a bit but then the vein kinda "gives up" and I get the reaction you describe. About the original poster; it sounds like an artery shot. It happened to me years ago, injecting cocaine. Same thing, but accompanied with pain and an electric shock as my arm swelled.
 
The main needle exchange in my city used to hand them out for free. Unfortunately they were hit with a funding cut, so now the filters are $1 each, but it's still worth it to preserve your health.

The needle exchange we have in bunbury hands them out for free aslong as you return your dirty fits and used filters.and when they do charge it's like less than 1$per filter
 
Don't mean to high jack the thread but I noticed u said you micron filter ur meth,I have a ton of blues I don't used and just sufferd a dirty and NEVER want to repeat but yeah what I'm wondering is do you use more than 60 units or just keep at 60units and swap the fits around?
 
this same thing has happened to me, they almost look like sever hives..its more than likely an allergic reaction to whaever bullshit your dope was cut with, it should subside within an hour, if not Id seek med attention
 
Wow, I haven't been on here since I started this thread I'm pretty surprised to see the discussion still going on now. Couple things I'd like to say.

Firstly, thanks to everyone for their input and concern over my wellbeing, I was genuinely terrified at the time. I had my phone in the other hand with 00 punched in and decided to post here instead incase it wasn't quite as serious as it may have seemed. In the end it wasn't.

The reason I was reluctant to seek medical attention was entirely due to previous mistreatment by hospital staff after other complications. One of the most insulting occurred in my early 20s when I was relatively new to using opiates IV. I was unaware that injecting suboxone with other opiates in your system that it would lead to precipitated withdrawl. I had injected 40mg of oxycodone a few hours earlier and decided to inject suboxone. Needless to say it was a terrible mistake and lead to some very unpleasant complications, one of which was a lot of vomitting. It became immediately apparent that something was very wrong but it was a long way to hospital. After some time of vomitting nothing but stomach acid, I vomitted something that looked like a small uncooked piece of meat. At this point I decided I had no choice but to seek medical attention, dragged myself to a train station, got on a train and dragged myself to hospital. It was awful.... Upon arriving I told the triage nurse what had happened. "What's suboxone?" was her reply. I explained and she told me that it was not an emergency because I was only vomitting and had really bad diarrhea (probably spelt wrong) and told me to go to the 24 hour doctor accross the road. I went there and there was about 16 people in the waiting room. I vomitted everywhere and shat my pants. A doctor came out and told me I needed to go to hospital. I walked back to the hospital where the triage nurse told me "I already told you to leave and now I'm calling security". I yelled out for another nurse or a superior and started causing a little bit of a scene, understandably. I didn't want any trouble, I just wanted some medical attention. I had no idea why this was happening to me. Another nurse came out and asked what was going on. I told her and she immediately got me in a bed, gave me some valium and a saline drip. I fell asleep eventually, and when I awoke they gave me a sandwich to see if I could tolerate food. I kept it down fine and felt a lot better, and left.

Another time I went there after punching a brick wall and dislocating one of my knuckles. I was in a decent amount of pain and asked for some painkillers. They gave me 2 panadeine forte. I told them I use 2 - 3 points of heroin a day and that panadeine forte would do nothing. They told me they wouldnt give me anything else. I kept asking and was escorted out by security. Naturally, I went and got on and felt better. Hand healed itself eventually.

As for what happened with the weird swelling, I tend to believe that it was due to the tip of the needle going slightly but not fully into the vein, enough to drawback blood but not completely in there. Heroin is a histamine agonist, and having it enter my system partially subcutaneously was likely the cause of the swelling. Thats just my opinion though and I'm not a doctor or anything.

For what it's worth I've been off heroin for over a year now, after a series of unpleasant relapses such as the one this thread is about. I dropped the next time I used. I love heroin as much as the next person and I'm sure I always will, but that dark chapter of my life is over now. I have a nice girlfriend, a nice place to live, a bit of work and things are great.

Sorry to get off topic like that but yeh just throwing my 2 cents in.

Thanks.
 
Good to hear. (Btw- yeah, hospital staff can be horrible to junkies)
 
I know exactly what you're talking about and I've tried to reasearch a few times to find out what it was and I came up with nothing. This actually just happened to me and it's definitely not BC the h is cut with something strange or anything bc I use dilauded .

One thing i always regretted not iv'ing the hydromorph... which was described to me by someone as the ultimate opiate experience.
 
Some kind of shitty cut no doubt or possibly the H was contaminated with impurities or micro-organisms. What your describing sounds almost like mild compartment syndrome, or at least that you shot up something that you could feel in your veins? Not good at all... can lead to blocked Lymph glands, cardiac valve arythmia, thrombus, stroke etc. Have seen some H that looked like CWE was mixed into the H (called cheese in USA when mixed with black tar heroin...sounds yummy!)

I've been doing the same stuff for a few months now... Its "uncut" or at least not messed with once my connection gets ahold of it. I was just searching for the answer to this question originally posted, because this just happened to me tonight, and it scared the hell out of me... It was an instant warm feeling in my hand, which is where I go, and then my hand swelled up almost instantly. I doubt that its due to the cut, or anything else, simply because this has never happened to me before, and this is the same h that I've been doing for a while now. I know that I didn't miss as well, because, well... U just know when uve missed, right? So... If its not the cut, or anything else that we can think of.... What is it? My original search was actually for " what happens when u do not correctly filter h before injection? " could that be the issue? I can't find the answer to this specific question, so if anyone might know, please let me know. Thanks. New here, so please be gentle... ;)
 
Don't mean to high jack the thread but I noticed u said you micron filter ur meth,I have a ton of blues I don't used and just sufferd a dirty and NEVER want to repeat but yeah what I'm wondering is do you use more than 60 units or just keep at 60units and swap the fits around?

I have also had a similar experience. I mixed up some MS-Contin, they would have been micron filtered when I originally prepped them because MS-Contins gel so you have to use micron filters using the only method I know of to prep them. Anyway for some reason I didn't have the shit and left the syringe on my windowsill for about 2 days(in the sun & stagnant but considering it was in a sealed environment and it had been micronned to begin with that it'd be fine to have.....Well, how wrong was I!!!

I had it, and within 5 minutes I had a excruciating headache and began throwing up non-stop. A friend walked past and said did he want me to have him call an ambulance, I said no wait 10 mins and if im still like this then yes please do call one. Well things proceeded to get worse and by the time they got there I was a total mess and it hadn't subsided at all. I was given some IV Maxolon for the vomiting and 2 bags of saline IV because I had sweated and vomited most of the fluids in my body. Now ive never met anyone thats had a dirty shot that sent them to hospital. But this was brutal! And ill never do it again, full fits either go in the freezer for short times or are used immediately. Every dirty shot ive ever heard of involved vomiting and a headache but only for 15-20 minutes. This lasted 2-3 hours. Im so glad it was morphine because is it was meth or coke I reckon the stress on my body would have killed me.

I always used to get little swelled spots, sometimes a little bigger, I also sometimes got swollen lips and other classic allergic reactions after a shot of heroin. Im not sure what it is exactly but there's definitely something to it. Promethazine is great for it but its also a big potentiator so you may want to have a lil less H if you choose to have PRometh with H.
 
definitely a miss

I searched but couldnt find a result for what I'm specifically talking about..
So, i got some heroin earlier and injected about a point. As i injected it, it felt strangely kinda hot and made my arm kinda feel like it was stinging or burning a little bit all the way down to my hand. I didnt miss though which is the weird thing. Immediately afterward, my arm swelled up mostly on the side with the veins but a little bit underneath as well. It was a weird kind of swelling, heaps of little lumps as well as larger bits that seemed to be in patches. I put ice on it on and off and let it be, its been about an hour and a half since i injected it, my arm is almost back to normal but still a little swolen. It isnt red or anything and only a tiny bit seems to be itchy. Ive had plenty of heroin and other drugs IV before and never experienced this. ive missed before and stuff and thats swolen, but this is different to that. that swelling is local and isolated, this seems to spread right down to my hand. its not feeling severe like it was before but its still concerning me. I dont really have time to fuck around going to hospital or anything otherwise id probably have gone there. this is the first heroin i've had in quite some time if that has anything to do with it. Does anybody know what this is about? any help would be greatly appreciated.

I say its definitely a miss, its happened to me a few times when injecting morphine, its the histamine releasing outside the vein into surrounding tissue.
We all seem to think we dont miss but we can, it happens when we pull back to find blood, even the slightest movement can then make then needle which was in the vein then poke through the lumen into being outside the vein.
 
Not trying to be a jerk here but some of you guys really aren't getting that it's NOT a miss, a skin pop only happens at the injection site, I'm checking this out because it literally just happened to me, cleanest shot I've had in a while, I thought the burning was because I tied off too tight, but then the bumps, which do look like skin pops but they don't hurt at all, some of them only itch a little, and they popped up literally ALL OVER my arm, and it scared the hell out of me. I know a skin pop when I see it, I shoot for both me and my girl and it sheets pissed me off because I get her perfect every time but when we started I missed myself almost every time. This was totally different, and I don't know the science to it yet so at first I thought it might have been the vein collapsing but it happened all over, not just along the vein. I'm convinced that it is the histamine thing, although I don't really know what that is. It's just the only thing that adds up. What happens when you do hit an artery though?
 
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