Missing a shot

[Lord Armagoth]

Sometimes when I miss my vein when shooting It will cause the area to swell up and hurt for a week or so. Whats going to cause that? its only happened a few times in 6 years. Other times I just get a hive like reaction and it itches. Im just interested on what exactly causes this.

 

[Swimmingdancer]

Sometimes when I miss my vein when shooting It will cause the area to swell up and hurt for a week or so. Whats going to cause that?

Uh, missing your shot causes it? I assume you're looking for a more precise answer than that. Swelling and pain lasting for a week is NOT good. It could be due to a reaction to whatever you're injecting (which is now trapped in your tissues instead of going directly into your blood stream), it could be an infection, it could be hitting a nerve or artery, it could be bruising - swelling and pain are not specific enough symptoms to determine what the problem was for you. If you have swelling and pain that lasts that long you should seek medical attention.

Other times I just get a hive like reaction and it itches.

Hives and itching are due to histamine. Histamine is normally released by opioids, but when you miss a shot it causes a more noticeable and localized reaction than when you don't miss.

 

[Crashing]

Yeah its just like getting a shot at the doctors office when they give you a muscle shot, that solution will get caught up in the tissues for a while and it usually hurts and takes a few days for your body to fully dissipate the foreign particles. It's different when shooting up at home though because theres usually bigger particles due to non 100% sterile techniques or inadequate filtering.

 

[jaspersilence]

Answer-It's the foreign substance lingering under your skin.Your body reacts to it rather rapidly to fight it off...and it's usually a large amount,which causes more immune reactions.

 

[bronson]

It could be an infection, it could be hitting a nerve or artery, it could be bruising - swelling and pain are not specific enough symptoms to determine what the problem was for you. If you have swelling and pain that lasts that long you should seek medical attention.

Quoted for truth, if you follow this advice in the future you'll be much safer, and avoid ending up in a potentially very nasty mess.