Heroin Atery shots???

[K88ABY]

I've been injecting for just over a year now, and the same pattern has happened from the start... I find a decent enough injection site.. use it for a while, and all of a sudden when I go to inject I get all the symptoms of atery shots i.e, the intense burning and swelling of the skin. Obviously I stop immediately, but thats the area unusable.. period. I have gone from arm to arm, to chest, which went the same way yesterday.. you only need to push a tiny tiny bit, but anyone who has experienced the same kind of pain will know.. it's just unbearable. And instant. Why am I so unlucky.. I always knew my veins weren't great, but how is it that I seem to ONLY ever hit ateries??! I'm too scared to try my first arm again (not used it for about 9 months) I can see what I think are decent enough veins, but that pain is just horrific :-( .... Also I have considered it might be allergy, but I have pinned straight into tissue before, and I don't experience that pain, it's only in the blood.
Should also mention that When this pain happens and I withdraw the pin.. blood pisses everywhere.. That's what convinces me they are ateries. Is it possible for them to leak for a while? Is that why when I try to inject near it for any time after it feels the same awful pain?

 

[Pegasus]

Use a diagram that shows your circulatory system to know what you're hitting before you push in the needle (links I have appear to be broken; I'll try to find some for you, or you can just search for the veins of the area of the body you are trying to inject). Also, read this.

 

[K88ABY]

Diamond !

 

[Secobarbital]

I'd doubt you are hitting arteries. Your BP will push the plunger out of the rig if you hit an artery, and it's much more serious than just swelling up. What size needles are you using? You aren't moving around enough if you use the same spot over and over. You are collapsing your veins. I have "good" veins, which means I never shoot within an inch of a place I have used in the last week. I also rarely inject, so I usually just go on a binge and have a bunch of random pin marks on random places where a vein will show on my body. What you are doing is "missing" the vein. This can be done by not going deep enough, having scar tissue push the vein out of the way (this is whats happening to you), or going through the vein. Make sure you register well, Often times, I will re-register mid shot to make sure I haven't wiggled at all. Then some people just don't have the veins. To hit my girlfriend, I have to use a 30 gage needle, and aim for her wrist and hand veins. It makes me a nervous wreck with the amount of precision involved in getting her with a rig. If you don't have the veins, just don't do it (I know, not really an option). Otherwise, you need to get longer needles, and start hitting the larger veins in your legs etc. The above guides will help you with that, but my personal rules are if I can't get it with a 1/2 inch 30 gage insulin needle, I don't touch it. It's just not worth it if I need to break out the thigh pins to get high. Nowhere near that desperate.

Edit: Just noticed you said there was blood at the end. If it's an artery, you will have squirting blood, not just a little. I think you are just collapsing or blowing out your veins. It does hurt like hell but that's part of breaking out the needle if you aren't exceptionally good at it. I had a little incident one time where from an injection near my elbow, a vein in my wrist just popped for no reason. Imagine having a needle in your arm, going for the push, and having that sharp pain and swelling in a different part of your arm =O. If you were hitting arteries, you'd have lost a limb in a year solid of doing it though, and like I said, the pressure is insanely higher. It is not at all unusual for the plunger to pop out of the back of the rig like I said. I've seen it happen (not on me thank god, I'm smarter than that shit)

 

[K88ABY]

Interesting....... But I know what misses feel like, god knows i've done that lots of times too... but this is a whole different thing. I can't tell you how painful it is when this shit happens to me, and it's freakin scary.. I googled a LOT to try and educate myself and see what the score was, and seemed to tick all the boxes for artery shots. Searing pain and swelling, both of which subside. I wondered, if maybe I AM hitting them, and if i did.. do they leak? Sorry if im being dumb, but I can't work it out. btw I use insulin 1mls, the very finest. Also the blood pulses when I withdraw the pin, takes some stopping. But i can prick about, (obviously not go back in the same hole) register what looks like a vein, and that awful pain happens again. That's where my leaking theory comes from. :-/ Depressing man. Thanks for your answer buddy

 

[muvolution]

If I try to see if my semi-destroyed spot in the crook of my left arm will accept any more hits, even after several months of not using it, it gives me intense, searing pain and just a little dribble of dark blood... maybe this is what you are experiencing? If the blood isn't frothy as hell and extremely highly pressured, you aren't in an artery. It sounds like your veins are just shot.

 

[Secobarbital]

Interesting....... But I know what misses feel like, god knows i've done that lots of times too... but this is a whole different thing. I can't tell you how painful it is when this shit happens to me, and it's freakin scary.. I googled a LOT to try and educate myself and see what the score was, and seemed to tick all the boxes for artery shots. Searing pain and swelling, both of which subside. I wondered, if maybe I AM hitting them, and if i did.. do they leak? Sorry if im being dumb, but I can't work it out. btw I use insulin 1mls, the very finest. Also the blood pulses when I withdraw the pin, takes some stopping. But i can prick about, (obviously not go back in the same hole) register what looks like a vein, and that awful pain happens again. That's where my leaking theory comes from. :-/ Depressing man. Thanks for your answer buddy

Pain won't be the primary sign of an arterial shot, the blood will be. You know how purple the blood is in the plastic right at the top of the needle? That would be bright red in coming out of an artery. You also only have only a few arteries. It sounds like you have scar tissue in huge amounts. Scar tissue is exceptionally painful, and would stay painful once you injected in and around it. If you hit an artery, expect it to blow the plunger out of the back, there is that much pressure behind it. All shots swell a bit, it depends on how much. I missed in my girlfriends wrist a few weeks back, and you could see where it had ran out underneath the skin, but because I was very aware of that possibility, I ended up stopping the plunge, and hitting the other wrist really quick. You would have a damn hard time injecting into an artery, the pressure pushes back that much. If you are using insulin needles, you aren't gonna be popping an artery anywhere but the crook of your elbow, and you would have to push pretty deep there. There are places I can't stick myself even though it looks like the best vein you ever saw, and it's because I've messed them up before and there is scar tissue there. If I am able to successfully inject there, it hurts like all hell b/c I'm sticking the needle through scar tissue. Think of scar tissue like poking the needle through a ligament, or tendon. You just wouldn't have an arm if you were hitting your arteries like that. An arterial injection is something you should pretty much immediately go to the ER over. The "lump" left from a normal injection is where blood leaked from the punctured vein, thats why you rub it down. Now imagine that x10. There is way more pressure in an artery, you are talking about enough pressure to cause golf ball sized lumps and bigger. The injection can clot in the artery and cause some really bad issues because its going down a thinner and thinner tube. You would have HAD to cut blood flow to a limb by now if this were happening this often. I know it hurts, needles do hurt, but what you are talking about sounds far more like scar tissue. When there are lumps of scar tissue inside your veins, you can stick the needle into one and try to register, it's going to hurt bad. Likewise, letting the needle slip into a lump of scar tissue mid plunge would hurt like all hell as well.

 

[K88ABY]

Maybe that's why even after months of not using a site it still burns like hell.. oh well, that's gotta be the shortest pinning career any gear head ever had. It's a bit disappointing knowing i'll never get that 'high' again :-(

 

[vb1997]

what about coke??? I accidentally hit an artery...and have been in intense bodily pain for the last 25 min...I'm starting to feel bettre now...but it was fucking scary!!

 

[Swimmingdancer]

Probably best to start a new thread if you can't find your answer by using the search, rather than bumping a year-old thread. Ok, what makes you think you hit an artery? What exactly happened? How are you feeling now and what are your symptoms?