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Heroin Importance of disinfecting IV injection site?

CalamityVein

CalamityVein

Greenlighter
Joined
Aug 1, 2012
Messages
19
How potentially bad is it to forget to disinfect the IV injection site? I've shot up a few times and followed the proper procedure except earlier today, for whatever reason, I inadvertently skipped the step of wiping the injection site with alcohol. As soon as I realized I forgot, I wiped it down.

Now it's about 30 minutes later now and there's a small area of puffiness over that vein (which I've never experienced before) and it's more itchy than usual so now I'm a little worried.

I'm in general a pretty clean person and I did take a shower about 20 mins before shooting. But what's the worst that can become of this? I know it's a important step that should not be missed! I can't tell if I'm being paranoid or if there's actually cause for concern. If something bad could happen, how soon will I know something's up?

Thanks in advance for any insight...
 
I know exactly how important it is, someone else that knows can tell you that...

But I will just say that i was a IV user for like 2 years and I rarely EVER used the alcohol wipes before or after injecting like your suppose to do, I got clean exactly 7 months ago as of today and when I got clean, I went to Doctor since Iv been clean and I have no diseases or problems that would have been caused from not cleaning the injection sight. So im just sayin that I'm okay after not doing that for 2 years.. I'm not sayin that you must be fine, since I got away with it for so long. But I wouldn't be too worried.. :)
 
Always use clean needles though, I think that is most important.. Getting cotton fever from dirty/old needles, or from cotton in your rig is like one of the worst feelings in the world! Not fun.
 
I think you will be fine... I've run out of swabs atm and have skipped it a few times, nothing bad has come of it. If you feel notice swelling and a fever I would go to the doctor, this would indicate you have an infection.
 
Thanks for your replies.

I feel normal so far. Only thing that I notice now is my right eye is completely bloodshot, which never happens to me. Hopefully it's just pure coincidence.
 
Don't worry. You should be fine. Just take it as a lesson learned and don't forget next time.


The importance of disinfecting the injection site is to reduce the germs on the skin to prevent infection. You can not make the skin steril but you can kill a lot of germs.
 
don't worry man. when i went to get my hep b vaccine, which is IM in your arm the doc just jammed the fucking needle in whilst we were chatting without doing anything.
 
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