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Harm Reduction Injection Complications FAQ and Mega Thread

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painful bruising 2 days after banging meth

so yea the place where i shot up meth in my upper arm near my wrist seems semi swollen and there is mild to moderate pain when I move it the wrong way or if i touch the part of my arm that i shot in.

I was just wondering if this is just bruising or if it might be something more serious? wouldn't i know right away if it was an abscess since it would appear as distint red circle shaped region in my arm? There is nothing that looks really weird on my arm although the part of my arm that i shot up in does seem fairly swollen.
 
missing a shot question PLEASE HELP

Hi guys I tried googleing my question and my problem still hasn't got better. 5 days ago I took about a 90 cc shot of black tar in the middle of my arm (other side of my elbow) I thought I was in and pushed it like a normal hit. I got down to 30 units and it just didn't feel right. Now it didn't hurt like when you miss just felt weird. Well 6 days later now and My whole bicep is crushed. I can't lift anything stretch my arm out all the way or even use my arm for anything. There is no swelling, My arm seems to just be really sore on the lower part of my bicep inside my muscle and just seems to not be getting better. I have tried iceing it putting heat on it and nothing seems to work. I can't see any side effects of a abscess or infection on the outside but believe me the constant uncomfertble pain and soreness is not getting any better, Can I please get some suggestions. Should I go to the doctors???
 
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I have no idea what that would be from your description. Are you getting blood circulation to your hands and everything? I would say take a trip to the doctor since it's not worth losing an arm over and you seem to be in a lot of discomfort.

Also what do you mean your bicep is 'crushed?'
 
yo alphanumeric ive tried hitting the vein that runs up my bicep before and missed and ended up with a problem really similar to urs. couldnt flex the bicep for shit for maybe 2 and a half days, but after that it started to loosen up. i made sure to kind of massage rubbing alcohol on the spot with cotton balls so i was massaging it and making sure it was clean and shit at the same time. i used a buncha of neosporin and this other cream similar to bengay and that allowed me much more motion in the arm. ended up with full motion of the arm after 4 days maximum.

im definitely no doctor and we injected in different spots so i really don't have any idea what could be going on from ur description, i posted because i've experienced that same symptom of not being able to flex my bicep. what you really should do if ur worried or if things continue to NOT improve you should seek some medical attention. i once tried to self treat a pretty large abscess on my arm and after seeing it increase in size (i circled it with a marker and watched it grow) i immediately went to a doctor and found out i had waited too long and that much more of the arm was infected than i could see. easily would've been prevented had i seen a doctor earlier.

like captain heroin said above, the important question at this point is, is it getting better or worse man? if its not better id see a doctor soon, seems like its been a while for no improvement and if its bothering u it's definitely better to drag ur ass to the doctor than to have something bad happen cuz u didnt get it checked out.
 
Need answer to infection question

First off I'm a very sick person, with a disorder that I was born with that's just as painful as cancer and sickle cell disease. So because of this in prescribed pain meds, And also because of the disorder I need iv access, now I had a portacath withc I used to inject iv drugs, but because of it being made out of plastic it was the perfect breeding spot for bacteria. Needless to say I caught three infections and the drs where baffled, and asked if I had been using iv drugs, which I obv said no. Well they took it out and now I just get iv lines placed, and now I'm using this for iv admin, Then I pull it for a few days to let my white blood cells fight any bactria that's there, and it's worked, but I'm worried about another infection and having to explain. So my question is, how many here, that iv drugs, have caught a infection, when there was nothing foreign in there body?

And ps I know about micron filters and I plan to buy some, but until then can anyone answer the question?

Plus I read the case reports, and that's more like an extreme which doesn't happen as often, I need an answer on the average iv user.

Thanks!
 
You need to be EXTREMELY careful with things like Ports, caths, IV lines etc. They are a DIRECT line into blood stream, so any bacteria that gets in there will have a direct path to your heart. That is why they put PICC lines in people ( the line goes in your sub-clavian in your arm and the line goes directly to your heart so they can deliver medicine to fight the infections) so you can see how dangerous what you are doing is. When the portacath is being used, you are introducing a foreign body NOT into your nose, mouth etc but DIRECTLY to your blood where it can infect other organs.

I know you are sick, but please, infections are DEADLY. Since you already seem to have infections, you need to be careful, and since you have a lowered immune system, this is extremely serious. If you were to develop Sepsis (infection of the blood) you CAN die.

Please let your doctors know that the medicine you have is NOT cutting it. Stop injection medicine into an open hole to your body. Maybe they can admit you to the hospital and put a PCA (a patient controlled analgesic button) in with Dilaudid or Morphine. These kinds of things need to be monitored in a hospital. MRSA, VRE and the likes are very dangerous when introduced into your blood.

Please be careful
 
You're playing with fire here i agree you should tell your dr.s that your pain meds aren't cutting it . If they refuse to help you in that respect, I'd recommend that you consider methadone.

Bottom line is that you must stop using ports, etc. to IV street drugs & pills. Good luck , godspeed!
 
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So my question is, how many here, that iv drugs, have caught a infection, when there was nothing foreign in there body?

probably noone, everytime i've been sick i know it's because something foreign has entered my blood stream. ie - cotton fever (dirty hit)

unless you mean like a chest infection or something like that then yeah i've got them. but i think i might be misunderstanding you.

Plus I read the case reports, and that's more like an extreme which doesn't happen as often, I need an answer on the average iv user.

it can happen to anyone, we're all the average IV users. yes, they're extreme cases but they happen to everyday people like you and me.

use micron filters, please
 
Its hard to speculate not knowing what your disease is, but it may increase your susceptibility to infections as well.
 
as an idu i have had quite a few infections. ive never had to have an abscess drained but i have had them. missing a shot of coke and tar was enough to give me a really bad one on my hand. beyond that i have had cotton fever many times. it seems that i get them more often now. almost every time ive had cotton fever i can smell the cotton i used to IV and it smells like mildew. once i found a rig that had a cotton stuffed in the white cap that keeps the plunger covered and figured id try to get something out of it. forgot that it had been about a month it was there. got really ill. shit like that has happened several times. so yeah, its very important to keep sterile. i try to use hand sanitizer to clean up for IVing but it is hard to make that habit after years of slamming in dire situations where it has become instinct to get it in me as fast as possible.

use alcohol for prep.
always smell a cotton to check for anything funky(this would have saved me 70-80% of the times i got sick from bacterial infections directly related to IV use).
use clean water as much as possible
NEVER SHARE

sorry if that was a little messed up. i just blazed and had a tetanus shot that wiped me out.
 
Yeah don't use a port to inject drugs man. You clearly don't know how to do it right (no offense to you, I probably wouldn't know how to either), so just stick to regular injecting or the oral ROA for a while.

Micron filters will help remove bacteria from the source, but if the problem is coming from a port which has stayed in too long, you can't really fix that with a micron filter.

If you do continue IVing your pain meds please do get a micron filter.

-> IV complications mega thread
 
You need to be EXTREMELY careful with things like Ports, caths, IV lines etc. They are a DIRECT line into blood stream, so any bacteria that gets in there will have a direct path to your heart.

QFT. IV admin is bad enough even though the window of time is only seconds, but a port is a permanent opening into your bloodstream, so infection is much more likely.

I know you want advice from "the average iv user" (in your words) but the average iv user (if there is such a thing) really doesnt apply to your situation, does it? You have a port into your bloodstream; the average iv user doesn't.

You must err on the side of caution here, which means using micron filters (size 0.22 or 0.45um) at the very least. If you get MSRE (methicillin resistant staph aureus, AKA golden staph) you'll certainly wish you spent the money
 
^absolutely DJ, MRSA is a huge concern in the US these days and I am constantly hearing about it... its ridiculous that due to persistent negligence (essentially) people are dying from a *staph infection* because traditional treatments simply don't work due to the resistance built up.
 
it runs pretty rampant over here in some of our hospitals cane, golden staph. my grandfather caught it twice within a couple of weeks while recovering after a heart by-pass, he was lucky he didn't die the second time.
 
Has anyone ever accidently gotten ash into thier IV solution?

And done it anyway lol? What happened? I know silly question I've just thought about it a few times while smoking a cigarette and prepping a shot. Fortunately I've always managed to keep my solution ash free. Also feel free to speculate on what would happen.
 
yes, im sure your fine i've even got tobacco in mine and have shot up with soda pop. I'm okay, but I aim for sterile shots more than then.
 
As far as I know cigarette ash should be sterile as it's been burnt and mainly consists of calcium carbonate (which is why it can be used as an antacid) and some residue salts and trace metals from the tobacco.
 
I would assume that you should try to avoid that lol. There's probably worse things in the cut anyway. As for speculation, probably nothing too serious. Might want to filter again unless you're just crazy lazy.
 
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