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Injection; IV Complications and Information MEGATHREAD and FAQ II - show me the blood

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So. Like an asshole I sauid I wouldnt shoot again, and did. I shot and I missed a shot of blood (I dar a lil blood back when I finish and shoot again...I know dumb) my hand didnt get all redy and hurt at frist but like 2 hours later it swoll the fuck up. Anyway, I been taking anti biotics and asprin, it reached its worst at like noon today, and since then its gotten better...just a missed blood shot? or something more serious?

we really cannot tell you accurately over the internet exactly what harm you caused and what to do about it. To me it sounds like a serious enough of a situation to where you should go to a doctor.....but since you said its allready starting to get better and you dont wanna go to the doctor, I would then tell you to watch it very closely(keep it very clean and sterile) and if it gets ANY worse, definitely go to the hospital.
But, jsut as a reminder, the members of BL are NOT replacements for actual medical proffessionals. In order to ge the best advice/answers regarding your injection mishap, you need to actually go in person to see a proffessional.
Good luck and im glad its getting better.
 
So. Like an asshole I sauid I wouldnt shoot again, and did. I shot and I missed a shot of blood (I dar a lil blood back when I finish and shoot again...I know dumb) my hand didnt get all redy and hurt at frist but like 2 hours later it swoll the fuck up. Anyway, I been taking anti biotics and asprin, it reached its worst at like noon today, and since then its gotten better...just a missed blood shot? or something more serious?

What size needles are you using? Thinner needles (22G and smaller, generally) will shred your red blood cells when squeezing through the needle, which can promote formation of clots when injected back into your veins.

Sounds like one of several possibilities (this is not medical advice btw):
1. Infection (Which antibiotic are you using? Cephalexin? Cloxacillin?) If it's getting better already, then it was probably just a simple infection.
2. Local ischemia (plugged vein) caused by an embolus (clot plug) due to the blood injection. This is potentially dangerous in case the clot gets dislodged.
3. Perforated vein (poked through the vein during injection) unlikely due to the timing of swelling.
4. Leakage of whatever substance you were injecting into the surrounding tissue, causing inflammation. Whatever it was cut with might cause irritation to skin and fat.

May I ask the reason you re-inject blood? I am making some assumptions ahead, so please forgive me if I am totally off with the reasoning.

Just to put things into perspective: the amount of drug residue left in the syringe after injection is astronomically low. Think how clean you can dry your windshield with wipers. Now imagine that kind of effect inside a syringe, expect it was made specifically for it! I can't imagine this ever being worth the risk of seriously causing harm to yourself. Unless we are talking sufentanil, but if you can handle such potent opioids in the first place, the residue will probably do next to nothing!

Take care
 
What size needles are you using? Thinner needles (22G and smaller, generally) will shred your red blood cells when squeezing through the needle, which can promote formation of clots when injected back into your veins.

Sounds like one of several possibilities (this is not medical advice btw):
1. Infection (Which antibiotic are you using? Cephalexin? Cloxacillin?) If it's getting better already, then it was probably just a simple infection.
2. Local ischemia (plugged vein) caused by an embolus (clot plug) due to the blood injection. This is potentially dangerous in case the clot gets dislodged.
3. Perforated vein (poked through the vein during injection) unlikely due to the timing of swelling.
4. Leakage of whatever substance you were injecting into the surrounding tissue, causing inflammation. Whatever it was cut with might cause irritation to skin and fat.

May I ask the reason you re-inject blood? I am making some assumptions ahead, so please forgive me if I am totally off with the reasoning.

Just to put things into perspective: the amount of drug residue left in the syringe after injection is astronomically low. Think how clean you can dry your windshield with wipers. Now imagine that kind of effect inside a syringe, expect it was made specifically for it! I can't imagine this ever being worth the risk of seriously causing harm to yourself. Unless we are talking sufentanil, but if you can handle such potent opioids in the first place, the residue will probably do next to nothing!

Take care

Amoxicilin 875mg. Update, it's basically gone. The night I posted this I took a razor, sterlized with alchol (skin too) and put on a pair of rubber gloves. I cut a lil line around the inflamed area and squeezed out a little of the miss shot and a wee bit of puss. I stuck some triple anti biotic cream on it, and bandaged. My hand is basically 95% bback too normal. My upper arm also tingled but within the last few hours both my arm and hand feel normal. It's still very slightly swollwn but almost gone. Thanks for the help.
 
Amoxicilin 875mg. Update, it's basically gone. The night I posted this I took a razor, sterlized with alchol (skin too) and put on a pair of rubber gloves. I cut a lil line around the inflamed area and squeezed out a little of the miss shot and a wee bit of puss. I stuck some triple anti biotic cream on it, and bandaged. My hand is basically 95% bback too normal. My upper arm also tingled but within the last few hours both my arm and hand feel normal. It's still very slightly swollwn but almost gone. Thanks for the help.

I don't recommend that people do this sort of thing at all, you could very easily spread the infection into your circulatory system on accident.
 
So, here's my latest IV complication.

I say "IV complication" not because it's a complication about shooting up, but about the insulin syringe itself.

I took a needle out of my pack and, holy fuck, the plunger is warped. I have a picture of this (I can post it later); the plunger stick was pushing through the plunger, as if part of the plunger got stuck in the syringe.

If you spin it around you can clearly see that it is fucked up. I couldn't very easily get a clear picture of it but you can see in the picture how it's way different compared to a brand new needle. I should probably try taking another picture of a regular, not fucked up new needle, so you can see the clear contrast of difference.

So, that makes two uniquely fucked up things. The first thing I posted about, was an insulin syringe which leaked out solution/blood as I was injecting!!! This was really freaky and weird (sometimes you'll see it leak in the tip but not to the outside of it next to where the needle sticks out of!).

Really though, do these sorts of things happen to other IDU's? It seems that they only happen to me. :|
 
I'm trying to figure out if I missed some of my shot... I was injecting black tar heroin, registered and started to push the plunger down. It was my first time doing it on my own, so I pushed the plunger down slowly (probably around 7-10 seconds) and watched closely to see if there was any swelling or anything like that. There was no swelling as I injected it at all, I thought I inject completely successfully, but about 10 minutes later I noticed a very slight raising on the injection site. It's slightly harder as well. I ran it under some hot water also cause I wasn't sure. Can anybody shed some insight on to whether I missed a little or not? Is it possible that this is just a slight reaction to my skin being punctured? Or perhaps a drop or something leaked out and this is an irritation/slight allergic reaction? As far as I understand it, you notice the bump immediately and it hurts. I felt no pain whatsoever, but is it possible that because I pushed the plunger down rather slowly, the pain killing properties already started to take effect and so I didn't feel anything? It's also very slightly warmer than other parts of my arm, but I'm not sure if that's because its been under hot water... So, is it likely that I missed a little or is this pretty normal?
 
I'm trying to figure out if I missed some of my shot... I was injecting black tar heroin, registered and started to push the plunger down. It was my first time doing it on my own, so I pushed the plunger down slowly (probably around 7-10 seconds) and watched closely to see if there was any swelling or anything like that. There was no swelling as I injected it at all, I thought I inject completely successfully, but about 10 minutes later I noticed a very slight raising on the injection site. It's slightly harder as well. I ran it under some hot water also cause I wasn't sure. Can anybody shed some insight on to whether I missed a little or not? Is it possible that this is just a slight reaction to my skin being punctured? Or perhaps a drop or something leaked out and this is an irritation/slight allergic reaction? As far as I understand it, you notice the bump immediately and it hurts. I felt no pain whatsoever, but is it possible that because I pushed the plunger down rather slowly, the pain killing properties already started to take effect and so I didn't feel anything? It's also very slightly warmer than other parts of my arm, but I'm not sure if that's because its been under hot water... So, is it likely that I missed a little or is this pretty normal?

Sounds normal. If it wasn't swelling/didn't sting/hurt as you were injecting it sounds like you made your shot all right.

Before I started micron filtering sometimes I would notice a bump like you describe which would slowly go away, especially if I was injecting pills.

It is possible you missed some of your shot too but I can't be sure.

It could also be a histamine reaction but I'm not sure.

If you are missing at least 10 units of a solution, it'll start to "bubble" up underneath your skin and you'll notice it'll be instantly inflamed after the injection.
 
Missed Shot Cause for concern? Picture included

Well doesn't really hurt. Its a bruise though. Should I get this looked at you think?

crap that link won't work. I'll put a picture up somehow
Try this one
 
I know that I can't be diagnosed over the internet. I'm obviously looking for opinions. Like from someone who has missed before and had this happen. I shoulda snorted some before I did the shot, was pretty sick. And I've never missed a shot before so it cause some anxiety for me. The reason I'm even doing this is because I spent over $10,000 at the hospital and I can't afford to see my PM doctor until Wed. Its been a shitty 3 weeks to say the least. That doesn't matter though just ventilating a tad. Just looking for opinions from people who've been in this kindad situation.
 
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The veins on your forearm that your are trying to hit are not good: they're small, covered with SQ fat and difficult to palpate, so they blow easily. It looks like a hematoma (bruise) but once again, w/o examining it, I would be wrong to say that it's ok. Just find another vein to use.

Are you taking aspirin or an NSAID? Both will make you bruise easily.
 
Yea been taking Naprosyn. Haven't shot much, but usually use the one in the bend of my arm. Used that one once before without a problem as I'm pretty good at hitting. But again was pretty sick at the time. Been 46hrs.
 
The veins on your forearm that your are trying to hit are not good: they're small, covered with SQ fat and difficult to palpate, so they blow easily. It looks like a hematoma (bruise) but once again, w/o examining it, I would be wrong to say that it's ok. Just find another vein to use.

Are you taking aspirin or an NSAID? Both will make you bruise easily.

All of these veins work fine for me, but I am fairly fit as well. I can also feel them out really easily.

Since this has pretty much been resolved (the bruise will fade over time) I'm going to merge it now.
 
Injected mephedrone 2 days ago. Immediately following injection the injection spot was numb to the touch, 45 min later it stopped being numb but I now feel a slight pain in my arm when I flex it straight or angled. It still hurts 2 days later. I don't remember this happening after many instances of injecting heroin although it's possible it did happen I just didn't feel the pain. Will this pass?
 
Injected mephedrone 2 days ago. Immediately following injection the injection spot was numb to the touch, 45 min later it stopped being numb but I now feel a slight pain in my arm when I flex it straight or angled. It still hurts 2 days later. I don't remember this happening after many instances of injecting heroin although it's possible it did happen I just didn't feel the pain. Will this pass?

It might, or you might need medical attention.

Is it inflamed or discolored?
 
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