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Heroin Slight Miss in Hand IV

ohsee80

Greenlighter
Joined
Apr 12, 2011
Messages
23
Location
Dallas, TX
A few minutes ago I was doing a shot of BTH... before I sucessfully IV'd it I had a very slight miss... I tried to inject in the vein next to my index finger and i thought I registered but then I barely touched the plunger and got the stinging sensation of a miss, so i pulled out and there was a very small bubble indicative of a miss.

Misses always scare me no matter how big or small having heard of the stories about abscess and gangrene and stuff. I have put a warm compress over the area and its not to swollen, but it is sore when i press on it. If there is no bump or anything do I have anything to be worried about?

Any preventative measures I need to take? I dont want to lose any fingers.

Thanks
 
run hot water over it for 20 min a few times a day and cross your fingers. Not much else you can do.

keep a close eye on it the next few days, Tar is probably the worst substance you can miss with.

how was the solution filtered ?
 
filtered with a cigarette filter. i dont have a micron filter unfortunately :(.... how would the red streaks/wall look??
 
You would see red streaks if they showed up. It would look like someone ran red kool aid on your hand.

You should be fine. Keep the injection site clean. It sounds pretty superficial so I doubt you will have any problems.

If you do see signs of infection in a few days take some antibiotic if you have them laying around your house. If you have a full course of them that's even better. Its not really good to take a day or two of them then stop because bacteria can grow immune. But this happens when you do this for years of antibiotic treatment. It will still help fight infection if it occurrs especially if you don't want to go to the dr or er for what ever reason.
 
yeah I'm a bit of a worrier, which is kind of ironic that I have IV'd drugs ever but ...meh

I assume that the bubble/miss would only get worse if it was going to turn into something bad. Theres no redness to it at all.. just a little sore, and Im thinking that could just be from puncturing the skin/vein there
 
Sometimes a blood infection can just look like a red line on the skin following the vein towards the heart, which doesn't become noticeable for a few days. Here's a photo:
NSFW:
2684531399_66c542636a.jpg


Not sure what it looks like on darker skin tones though.

Right now it's too early to tell if it is going to become infected but there's not much you can do other than applying hot wet cloths (and keeping it clean). But don't worry too much! Just check on it (for swelling, redness, pain, or feeling hotter than the surrounding skin) over the next few days.
 
Sometimes a blood infection can just look like a red line on the skin following the vein towards the heart, which doesn't become noticeable for a few days.

Wouldnt a blood infection occur from a successful shot and not a miss?

Also, does applying a hot/wet cloth actually reduce chances for abscess/infection or help in any way?
 
^No, a blood infection/"blood poisoning"/septicemia is more likely to result from a missed shot, but it can also happen from a successful shot. Other common causes are scrapes, spider bites, coral, etc. It is caused by a localized infection which then spreads, and missed shots are more likely to result in infection. I've only had one once and it was from a missed shot. I took antibiotics and it cleared up. Red lines/streaks are due to local inflammatory changes in the blood vessels or lymphatic vessels and are worrisome as they usually indicate a spreading infection that may result in sepsis (a potentially lethal whole-body inflammatory state triggered by an infection), so if you ever get one get treatment before it gets more serious. The bacteria begin infecting the skin or tissues, then they and/or their toxins spread directly or indirectly into the bloodstream (allowing them to spread to other organ systems).

Applying heat helps the missed fluid dissipate and decreases the risk of infection by increasing blood flow and oxygen to the area.
 
I had sepsis and I never had any visual indicators, even after I was suffering from high fevers and other horrible symptoms. In my case, it was not the result of a miss, but rather from using dirty works. I doubt the OP will wind up with a blood infection but it's definately important to be aware of the symptoms. I was lucky and went to the hospital just in time. According to the medical team that worked on me, I could've been dead had I waited another day.

Usually with a miss, especially in the hand, you want to run it under warm water and apply a hot compress. The hand (as well as the feet) have weaker circulation than the arms, so you want to try and increase the blood flow to these areas as much as possible to fight off infection.
 
Well thats good to know. Dually noted. As for an update, nothing seems to have worsened but I will continue to monitor it. On another note, here in D-town, TX no prescription is necessary for syringes and I went and bought a pack of 29 ga. insulin rigs from Walgreens last night.
 
A few minutes ago I was doing a shot of BTH... before I sucessfully IV'd it I had a very slight miss... I tried to inject in the vein next to my index finger and i thought I registered but then I barely touched the plunger and got the stinging sensation of a miss, so i pulled out and there was a very small bubble indicative of a miss.

Misses always scare me no matter how big or small having heard of the stories about abscess and gangrene and stuff. I have put a warm compress over the area and its not to swollen, but it is sore when i press on it. If there is no bump or anything do I have anything to be worried about?

Any preventative measures I need to take? I dont want to lose any fingers.

Thanks

I had a very similar experience but on my arm, everything i did has been covered all ready above and it still got infected. Not only did i face the risk of loosing my arm but i am now left with a very obvious looking scar/dent on my arm.

Nobody wants to go to the docs and have to explain how it happened but if id gone sooner it wouldnt of been half as bad.
At the end of the day its there job to look after you no matter what the problam is, my advise is if it changes at all go straight there! would of saved myself alot of pain for the sake of a corse of antibiotics.

Hope everything is ok
 
I had a very similar experience but on my arm, everything i did has been covered all ready above and it still got infected. Not only did i face the risk of loosing my arm but i am now left with a very obvious looking scar/dent on my arm.

Nobody wants to go to the docs and have to explain how it happened but if id gone sooner it wouldnt of been half as bad.
At the end of the day its there job to look after you no matter what the problam is, my advise is if it changes at all go straight there! would of saved myself alot of pain for the sake of a corse of antibiotics.

Hope everything is ok


Was there anything you would have done differently when shooting/prepping to be cleaner or something you didnt do that you shouldve done to prevent infection? or was it just the dope you were shooting that caused it..


also how did it look/progress from the first day til the 2nd or 3rd day in the area where you missed?
 
Was there anything you would have done differently when shooting/prepping to be cleaner or something you didnt do that you shouldve done to prevent infection? or was it just the dope you were shooting that caused it..


also how did it look/progress from the first day til the 2nd or 3rd day in the area where you missed?

It was a miss so taking more care would of prevented it, i was just an idiot and rushed. with regards to what it looked like for the first 3/4 days it looked like a burn but then started to look like a hole until it eventualy scabbed over but still took weeks to heal.

Sorry for the late reply have had no access to the internt, hope the arrms ok now
 
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