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cotton fever doesn't make sense

sleepy

sleepy

Bluelighter
Joined
Dec 4, 2007
Messages
222
i need to know why this is happening and that's why i'm posting in the advanced section - hope nobody minds: . the is the situation: ten yrs ago i was a heavy dope fiend, slammed black tar all day. i never got sick or an infection after mainlining w/very little concern for sterilizing everthing (i probably used an alcohol wipe or washed my arm -- but by no means did i sterilize the equiptment, the water, etc) -- for two or a little longer years i got cotten fever, chills, teeth chatters, horrible state for a couple hours that came on a couple hours after doing the shot -that happened maybe twice, and it was always after desperately stomping on old cottons


so, now i'm banging pills.(and extremely causous about sterilization) i got totally flammed for skin-popping them, but honestly, after doing it for about a year or more, i got only two infections: puffy tender area around injection site that oral antibiotics cleared up immediately) i never felt sick or ferverish at all -- but, since everybody is SO AGAINST skin poping the pills i've started main lining instead. and i swear to god, after a couple of weeks of doing this, i've gotten this "cotten fever" almost every time. sometimes worse than others, but it's terrible.i have to cancel any plans i've made and just wait for it to pass (about 2-3 hours of being freezing cold, teeth chattering, body quivering to get warm)) i sterilize the water, the area i work in, i've started using steril swabs; i don't know what else to do. i always filter twice and keep any extra refridgerated. i'm shooting duladid btw, so there's not other crap to filter, just the bindersa and chalk.


thanks for any ideas
 
Cotton fever and your body's reaction to particulates in the bloodstream are two very different things - one is an infection, the other is an acute reaction. I haven't used any injection routes so this is just from what i've learnt rather than experience but it really sounds like you need to filter better, get some micron filters for your syringes.
If it still happens, then look to other causes of it, maybe your body just doesn't get on well with whatever it is that you're shooting.
 
You're skin popping pills? Sort of makes any help we give you pointless.

If you're not gonna IV them, don't inject them at all.
 
please read entire post

you know ham - i really respect your knowledge and input, but you piss me off sometimes. did you even read my post? I'M NO LONGER SKIN POPPING THE PILLS - in part because of your flaming me for doing so - so, after 1.5 yrs of skin popping w/only two mild infection which were cleared up w/oral antibiotics, since i started IVing two weeks ago i've gotten sick almost every day - please read the original post for a description of the sickness

Ham-milton said:
You're skin popping pills? Sort of makes any help we give you pointless.

If you're not gonna IV them, don't inject them at all.
Click to expand...
 
I don't usually get into flaming... surely you don't consider this an instance?

Anyway, I misread what you said... and skipped what I decided wasn't important. I am so good of making an ass out of myself. Apologies.

But this doesn't sound like cotton fever to me. It the sickness only lasts 3 hours?

Are you sterilizing the water after the pills have dissolved? What are you filtering with? Have you considered switching solvents? I hate to suggest switching solvents, but it might be worth a try.

Perhaps using an alcohol solution might work better. I'ved used it before... although it's really, truly, not something I would EVER do again.

maybe if I had lidocaine to numb the area first- but it hurt like hell.

maybe a 40% alcohol/water solution would be better. I used a 70% ethanol solution. It brought tears to my eyes really quick.
 
sick why?

yea, about three hours:comes on slowly, im just colder than people around me, then it increases to the point of teeth chattering, body shivering, btw. teeth chatering so badly that if i try to talk i bite my tounge repeatedly, extreme body and joint ache, then after a couple hours it starts to fade and then i usually end up really overheated for a while, sweating etc.

this last batch i micro waved after filtering (if i micro wave first it melts all the stuff i'm trying to filter). this batch still made me sick, but possibly less so. but maybe i just did less.

i'm filtering (just started, before used just q-tips) w. steril cotton -- i just bought some coffee filters and was going to start cutting them up, layering w,coton, and back loading as a final filter (i was planning on steriliaing the coffee filters 2 min. in microwave)

i cant afford the micron filters and anyway, dont have the equip. to use them - oh, also just ordered dental cotton.

the alcohol idea, thanks, but that sounds too scary. -- i guess though, if i knew if the problem was bacterial or perticulate, that would help. like i said, i shot tar for years w/o much consideration to any of this and never even got an abssess. and only got this fever sickness the few times i stomped on old cottons..

this is a really long post, sorry. thanks for any advice

Ham-milton said:
I don't usually get into flaming... surely you don't consider this an instance?

Anyway, I misread what you said... and skipped what I decided wasn't important. I am so good of making an ass out of myself. Apologies.

But this doesn't sound like cotton fever to me. It the sickness only lasts 3 hours?

Are you sterilizing the water after the pills have dissolved? What are you filtering with? Have you considered switching solvents? I hate to suggest switching solvents, but it might be worth a try.

Perhaps using an alcohol solution might work better. I'ved used it before... although it's really, truly, not something I would EVER do again.

maybe if I had lidocaine to numb the area first- but it hurt like hell.

maybe a 40% alcohol/water solution would be better. I used a 70% ethanol solution. It brought tears to my eyes really quick.
Click to expand...
 
Well, you got lucky for a long time, especially with tar. Using alcohol would help you figure out if it's a particulate issue, or if it's bacterial, since it'd take bacteria out of the equation.

It sounds very odd, imho.
 
Sleepy:

It sounds to me as though you are having a mild, acute, inflammatory reaction to something present in the pills. Your body is responding to the pill injection in a way similar to how it would respond if you were putting bacteria into your blood stream, but the short duration of your symptoms suggests a non-infectious source for what you're experiencing. This type of reaction would only occur with an IV shot, and not with skin popping.

Essentially, what's happening is that your body is raising it's temperature 'set point' (like a thermostat being cranked up), which in turn makes you feel cold, and shiver to try and raise your body temp to the new set point. Once the inflammatory signal is gone, your body thermostat gets turned back down, and your body responds by causing you to feel hot, and sweat, in an effort to cool down to the new lower set point.

It is almost certainly some particulate matter in the pills that is to small to be filtered out by a cotton. You need to switch to micron filters in order to stop these symptoms from happening -- and it is in your BEST interest to do this. You could easily put yourself into septic shock and die if your body is in fact responding to your pills this way.

Here's a suggestion to help you determine for sure that the particles you are reacting to are coming from the pills:
- Prepare and administer a shot in EXACTLY the same way you do normally, except don't actually put the pill in. For example, take your water, put it into your spoon, heat it, draw it through the cotton, microwave, etc etc, just don't actually put the pill in. This will rule out your cotton or solvent as the source of your reaction.

Again, order/purchase/invest in micron filters if your going to continue to shoot pills.
 
raybeez said:
Sleepy:

It sounds to me as though you are having a mild, acute, inflammatory reaction to something present in the pills. Your body is responding to the pill injection in a way similar to how it would respond if you were putting bacteria into your blood stream, but the short duration of your symptoms suggests a non-infectious source for what you're experiencing. This type of reaction would only occur with an IV shot, and not with skin popping.

Essentially, what's happening is that your body is raising it's temperature 'set point' (like a thermostat being cranked up), which in turn makes you feel cold, and shiver to try and raise your body temp to the new set point. Once the inflammatory signal is gone, your body thermostat gets turned back down, and your body responds by causing you to feel hot, and sweat, in an effort to cool down to the new lower set point.

It is almost certainly some particulate matter in the pills that is to small to be filtered out by a cotton. You need to switch to micron filters in order to stop these symptoms from happening -- and it is in your BEST interest to do this. You could easily put yourself into septic shock and die if your body is in fact responding to your pills this way.

Here's a suggestion to help you determine for sure that the particles you are reacting to are coming from the pills:
- Prepare and administer a shot in EXACTLY the same way you do normally, except don't actually put the pill in. For example, take your water, put it into your spoon, heat it, draw it through the cotton, microwave, etc etc, just don't actually put the pill in. This will rule out your cotton or solvent as the source of your reaction.

Again, order/purchase/invest in micron filters if your going to continue to shoot pills.
Click to expand...
He posted this in OD. I told him that either his contaminating his shot, or his pills are already contaminated with bacteria. Your "particulate" theory makes sense though...

but the short duration of your symptoms suggests a non-infectious source for what you're experiencing.
Click to expand...
Not sure if cotton fever is considered infectious or not, but that only lasts a few hours on average as well.


Is there any evidence that micron filters help that much?
Click to expand...
Yeah, there are studies out there on how well they filter. <.22 should catch all bacteria. Obviously other things may get through though...


I can imagine them clogging pretty quickly.
Click to expand...
You could avoid some clogging by first filtering with cotton/coffee filter or larger size microns...
 
^All sounds about right. The symptoms sound like what would be called a "dirty hit" - typically caused by physical reaction to foreign matter.

Pills wouldn't normally carry much of a bacterial load - unless they had been heavily handled (outside of packaging), or secreted in the mouth.

The accepted wisdom round these parts is that a cotton will filter out particles 50um or larger - thus there will be significant particulate contamination in the 10-50um range when shooting pills (but have no reference to back this) - micron filters can go down to 0.22um, which will filter out bacteria and fungi, but not viruses.

And yeah - you filter through cotton first before using micron filter...
 
Have you thought of doing a cold water extraction? That could get out a lot of particulate matter and excess binders. However, you should be sure to make sure everything you do the extraction with is clean and don't leave it sitting around a dirty fridge, etc.

However, I wouldn't know from a personal perspective.
 
best bet is simply to use simple sterile lab procedures such as sterile vials, syringes, pre-filters and filters and get yourself a nice clean end solution into a sterile vial to draw as desired
 
IMO, if you're IVing pills, and not using a micron filter, you have no right to bitch about any trouble you may encounter. Switch to a new MOA, stop IVing your pills, get a micron filter, just DO SOMETHING. Don't keep shooting that shit straight into your veins it's no good for you.
 
Would something like Sterifilt filter out suboxone well enough to shoot? They make it sound like it's good enough, and if it can do Suboxone, it should handle anything.
 
IMO, if you're IVing pills, and not using a micron filter, you have no right to bitch about any trouble you may encounter. Switch to a new MOA, stop IVing your pills, get a micron filter, just DO SOMETHING. Don't keep shooting that shit straight into your veins it's no good for you.
 
roger stop being such a douche bag. its so ironic how everyone always bitches and complains about shooting pills. god forbid shooting pharms without a micron as opposed to street drugs that were prolly shoved up yer dealers ass an hour before u bought them off him
 
Ok, I've been on OC's & Percocets for about 6years but recently have been wanting to shoot them. The problem? I don't want to do it "wrong". I've heard i should cook it, I've heard I shouldn't. I've heard I should crush it, & I shouldn't. I've been told I can just use a piece of cotton or a cigg filter, then I've been told not to. Also I don't know how much water I should use & how can I be sure when I'm pulling the plunger on the syringe back that I don't shoot a bubble of air in my vein accidentally. Thanks & please all I ask is no insults, lol. So, can any & everyone please clarify all of these questions for me.
 
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