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Using a hospital iv line

Roxane man

Greenlighter
Joined
Oct 1, 2013
Messages
16
I just had an idea. You can buy iv lines off the Internet so I wondered if it would be feasible to sort of customize one so I could do injections without having to puncture myself again and again. Iv lines have a port which a needle can be stuck into so nurses don't have to puncture you again. I was thinking of buying one and sealing off the end that usually goes into the machiene by cutting the tube right after the port and sealing it with a lighter. The line would only be about 3 inches long and could easily be hid under my shirt. I don't see any reason why this wouldn't work. I understand Id still have to change the line like every 2 weeks but it would tremendously reduce damage to my veins. I know this sounds nuts but I really think its doable
 
If your not in a hospital setting or if you do something wrong it can be VERY easy to get infections through IV/picc lines. Shit, it's easy to get infections IN a hospital setting. I would think twice about this dude, if you're thinking about giving yourself a permanent IV line to make it easier to shoot up, it might be time to stop injecting.
 
How dangerous can it really be? Certainly not any more dangerous than constantly doing another puncture again and again. I've only been doing iv drugs for a few months I'm just sick of having to rotate and sometimes miss
 
As a nurse I can tell you they change IV sites no less than every 72 hours (3 days). At the very most that is all. That it is safe to leave in one place. Besides the infection issue you have to give that site/vein a rest. If you continuously put crap through it for 2 weeks you are begging for problems. Besides the infection issue, it would never last that long. The vein would blow before then. Even more importantly, in the hospital we do a heparin flush every so many hours in order to keep the line from clotting off if there is nothing running through it continuously. It is also pretty common to go in with our heparin flush or to put a med through and for it to be clotted off. If you cannot push the med through very easily then that site is done and has to be moved somewhere else. Trust me, you don't want to push through enough that you break that clot off and set it free in your bloodstream. Or you will blow the vein.

Unless you are trained in how to care for an IV line, have all the necessary equipment and the proper kind of line it is a very bad idea.

There are reasons why you have to rotate sites...its not just for fun. And trust me, having an open IV line constantly is a huge source of infection...so yes it can be worse than sticking your self constantly.
 
Ok so maybe i was wrong about how often it would have to be changed every 3 or 4 days would still be better. And the line wouldent b 'open' it would be sealed off completely by melting it closed with a lighter. And if I got heparin then there'd be no issue.
 
If you've only been banging for a few months, you probably have several good veins on your arms (unless you DNA is shit). Doing a small prick & then coming back to the site a week or two later with a fresh point works for most people. The biggest thing IME/IMO is using a new needle every time.

As others have said, this sounds like a terrible idea. You also may want to look into plugging.
 
Nothing is safer than using a fresh syringe every time, cleaning the injection site with alcohol prior to injecting, and using proper IV technique.

This idea sounds great on paper, but it's not practical. You have a much greater risk for infection by inserting a line like this and keeping it there for days then you do just freshly injecting every time.

It's not a practical idea. Just IV the normal way that people have done it forever... it works, trust me. Ha.

Check out the IV megathread for more info on safe practices.
 
dude, please no. i can tell by the fact that youre new at IV'ing, and the fact that you want to melt the line closed with a lighter to avoid infection that this could only end horribly.

as said above, you are in no way armed with the knowledge or tools to make this happen

is shooting up normally really that horrible?
 
8o

hahahahaha.... my sides! my mother-fucking sides!

A customized picc line that he wants to melt shut with a lighter like the cellophane on a cigarette pack! Sure, brah, what could go wrong?

No, but seriously, this sounds like a pretty bad idea and I definitely would not advise it.
 
There are devices like a hep lock to seal off an IV line. You don't need to cut the line and melt it shut. Of course you had the right idea in that its flushed with heparin.

Regardless, its been made clear this idea is probably not a good one.
 
Have to agree with all the other replies, not a great idea. Also, having the thing under clothes and whilst doing day-to-day activities, the whole thing is just going to be unsanitary.

I think the greatest argument against it is simply that there have been a lot of junkies through history, and living today. If this was a good idea, it'd be more frequently practiced.

That said, I have once in a while thought that it might not be the worst idea if one was doing a small IV binge and had the training to insert one. If I knew what I was doing (as in, was a student doctor or something), I can see putting in an IV line for a 12-24 hour binge. But only, as I say, if I had the training, was using something with small enough doses that it wouldn't simply destroy the vein, and was at home where I could have some control over keeping myself and my clothes and my environment clean.

Really though, I don't think it sounds like I or you or really many other habitual drug users have the skills needed to make this any easier or safer than just 1 shot 1 needle.
 
OP, did you only see the part about the heparin? You should read it again. I'm telling you it is not safer.
 
Why do I have the sneaking suspicious I am going to read about OP in an upcoming issue of the American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology... 8)
 
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