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Heroin Help me here. Was this an abscess in your opinion ?

Whosajiggawaaa said:
Thanks bro. Only hope I can CUNTinue it. cos every day i think of pinchin a few oc40s. but i always reach out to someone on the phone. cept today i have been postin it here instead. i should call my sponsor tho. but i dont feel like it cos i know what hell say. get to a meeting and this bs will pass.
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Congrats on the path of sobriety. Couldn't see on the post on this broke ass phone before I posted.
 
Shaleh said:
MRSA, Staph, bacterial, GG, the list goes on and on of what this is/could have turned into.

This is disturbing on so many levels ... 1) that you'd neglect this wound and 2) your addiction would make you neglect this wound.

NOT JUDGING, just curious....

I suggest seeking medical care, seriosiously....we're talking sepsis, blood infection, long term damage, etc.

How're you feeling now?

Please use HR techniques like new needles, rotating injection sites, etc.

The worst issue I have had is edema on my pinky from a missed shot, but as an addict, I'm scared shitless of abcesses and such.


Take care...
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its healed now. but its fucked that i did nothing about it for over 3 weeks. i still havent absorbed how lucky i got , well i think i have cos i no longer am craving needles i just crave oral oxy now (which would prob lead me back to needles if i did it).

I am fine now. WOrking out daily feel good. I put vit E on the scar every day(have been since it healed on and off) but i dunno if it doing much. i hate that scar (the second pic) always makes me self conscious. but i guess it should be a reminder how i cheated death or loss of limb.
 
You're extremely lucky that did not get infected worse, and that you did not die. What have doctors said when you told them what happened and showed them the picture?

Congratulations on getting sober. The craving is normal and apparently does not go away, but you do not have to act upon it, and the more time you are sober the less frequent the craving is.
 
Thanks. It gave them the hebee gebees. I only showed rehab docs the scar with a VERY minimised description though. You guys are the first people ever to lay your eyes on that pic. I didn't tell a soul about it in active addiction didn't even tell people on this site. I wrapped it with gauze and always wore long sleeved shirts which hurt like hell rubbing against that wound.

I'm must really absorb how lucky I was then. Cos at the time I always felt like it would heal even though it didn't after 3 weeks (and actively grew) I just felt it would scab eventually and heal. Which luckily it did. But I was clearly very deluded from being wasted on H and Oxy 24/7.

My right arm is pretty fucked from repeated surgeries on the humerus (snapped) and shoulder ball and socket(shattered) so losing the left which is becoming my right - I box and hit the bag south paw now- WOulda been horrible , horrible to lose an arm in general but my strong arm too...

Anyway just gotta let it sink in. The more posts emphasising the severity the better.
 
My god that looks awful. I have to pass that pic around to some of my "friends" who take IV hygiene lightly.
 
For comparison, and another for the scaring-people-into-harm-reduction album a typical abscess (vs ulcer) looks like this (also coming after a missed shot of heroin)—

NSFW:
before, and this is not a very good picture, my mind was not on taking a good picture, believe it or not ;) while this was going on … this is roughly tennis ball sized, ~1.5-2cm elevation, and produced 250-300mL of purulent discharge within the first 12 or so hours, lesser but consistent amounts over the next 24-36 hours, and eventually just a manageable amount on each dressing change which could be done about every eight hours, when initially needed to be done every two or so; at worst it was associated with a 101~102.5° degree fever, which broke within ~24 hours of drainage. This is not necessarily a typical course; medical care is required, probably not hospitalization, but definitely a visit to the ER.



after incision, drainage, irrigation and dressing changes, and eventually healing (~9 months after the above) there is about a 20mm deep crater of induration which is composed of mostly smooth skin over hardened, fibrous tissue. I expect it to stay more or less like this for a long time, and never go away. With a suitable sized needle, the vein is, in fact, accessible, with a not inconsiderable amount of difficulty as this is hardened, fibrous tissue, but to use it again with any frequency would be unwise to say the least.



As a result, the prospect of me wearing short sleeve shirts in a work environment questionable at any time in the remotely near future.

Once more with feeling, this is NOT a do-it-yourself project, I have the necessary qualifications to do so; most of you will not, even given that I do, it was not at all smart of me to do it by myself, and I should have gone to the ER or urgent care clinic.
 
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^So if I understand you right , what I had (an ulcer) can be worse than an abscess ?

I've been using bio-oil and vit-e but it ain't been doing much to make the scar fade. I think yeah time is what it needs.

Dermabrasion, would that work? I where short sleeves now in the casual environment cos only ex/junkies know what my scar is IMO.
 
Given that I work in medical (and even more significantly, mental health) setting, I think people would catch on pretty quick. I also am surprised that regular people don't suspect that any sort of mark in that area is drug-related; but I guess my mind pretty much goes there quickly and many drug-naïve people don't, but regardless; if you use IV drugs, expect to have permanent markings of some kind (I already did, there, but they were eliminated by the much larger crater surrounding them, whereas my less favorite sites the markings eventually went away almost totally or are indistinguishable from random other skin markings.

What's the first problem with the last sentence?

Favorite sites.

We all have them; but it is really, really important to practice regular rotation of sites. This particular abscess I could tell something was wrong more or less from within half an hour of the injection (this will not necessarily be the case, at all; sometimes they can take days or even longer to make themselves evident) and already I think had a little inflammation there after another missed shot as the vein was in pretty bad shape. That's what you get for always using your go-to vein.

"I'm searching for my mainline / I couldn't hit it sidewise" —Lou Reed (that that mothefucker lived into the 21st century is unbelievable)
 
SKL said:
Given that I work in medical (and even more significantly, mental health) setting, I think people would catch on pretty quick. I also am surprised that regular people don't suspect that any sort of mark in that area is drug-related; but I guess my mind pretty much goes there quickly and many drug-naïve people don't, but regardless; if you use IV drugs, expect to have permanent markings of some kind (I already did, there, but they were eliminated by the much larger crater surrounding them, whereas my less favorite sites the markings eventually went away almost totally or are indistinguishable from random other skin markings.

What's the first problem with the last sentence?

Favorite sites.

We all have them; but it is really, really important to practice regular rotation of sites. This particular abscess I could tell something was wrong more or less from within half an hour of the injection (this will not necessarily be the case, at all; sometimes they can take days or even longer to make themselves evident) and already I think had a little inflammation there after another missed shot as the vein was in pretty bad shape. That's what you get for always using your go-to vein.

"I'm searching for my mainline / I couldn't hit it sidewise" —Lou Reed (that that mothefucker lived into the 21st century is unbelievable)
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not many people IV here and not to sound vein but they "normal people here" are not gonna look for it on a person like me i'm always well dressed these days and drive a nice car. here the only people that IV in 99% percent of the populations eyes are homeless junkies and streetwalking hookers. IVing isn't very popular here at all. most drugs are smoked here. heroin is smoked by and large here
 
65 days today.

is fucked that cos I always digged HR and did EVERYTHING BUT rotate sites and not rotating sites is what caused that. YOU GOTTA TAKE EACH PART OF lV HR AS SERIOUSLY AS THE NEXT COS ONE LIL FK UP (or TWO IN A ROW IN THIS CASE IN THE SAME SITE) lS ALL IT TAKES TO FUCK YOU!

took the pic down. cos it's done it's job. hurts my eyes each time (but i must remember cos i even forgot how bad it was after it healed).
 
well I'm clean 17 months now - not a stepper anymore do blaze weed and drink very occasionally, I consider that clean. I have been craving H recently. I haven't come back to this thread in well over a year. I'm glad I did though. I am in the best physical shape of my life, I lift weights, mountain bike and run marathons. None of that would be possible if I was squirting junk up my arm. mountain biking and weightlifting wouldn't be possible at all with no arm (maybe with some determination).

grateful. when I tell myself my luck sucks I must remember this. I have 2 huge veins from weight lifting and muscle growth where that ulcer was as well as a feint scar as a reminder.

cravings successfully annihilated looking at that pic. i've uploaded it to my phone again.

Jekyl Anhydride said:
You should tuck that thing in some NSFW tags and post it in: "Case Studies (It could happen to You)" the sticky at the top of OD. That thing was a beauty.. http://www.bluelight.org/vb/threads/445570-Case-Studies-(It-could-happen-to-YOU-)
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maybe i'll do that. always forget how bad it was.
 
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This is an abcess took 6 months to heal completely it also took several rounds of antibiotics and being hospitalized cuz I had sepsis or however you spell it
 

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