OverzealousCop
Greenlighter
- Joined
- Mar 26, 2014
- Messages
- 10
So I've been IV'ing heroin for about 6 months now, and I feel like I've gotten a pretty good technique down, pretty good at locating veins, good at cycling through them (I wasn't at first, unfortunately, and abused a number of decent, juicy veins until they stopped producing :[ ), etc. However, I still have a few questions.
1) Can I shoot up in the veins in my upper arms/shoulders/torso/abdomen? I'm a very pale person, and I can actually see a number of light blue veins all over my shoulders, chest, stomach, etc. Are these veins good to IV in? I know they're more surface veins than anything, and they aren't major mainlines like in the elbow crook or behind the knee, but I figure if I can shoot in the tiny veins in my hands, these should work, right? However, I've had difficulty hitting them sometimes, which brings me to my next question...
2) How deep are most veins? I have a real hard time gauging how deep to push the needle (I use 1/2" or 'long points'), and what angle to approach it at. Especially with these veins that I can see through my skin... are they really, really close to the surface, or does it just seem that way because they're visible? Are they actually deeper than they appear? For example, I know that the vein in my elbow crook is fairly deep, as that vein is why I buy long points in the first place; I was unable to reach it with short points for the most part. Are some veins really shallow, and some deeper? I'm thinking about investing in a box of short points to see if they help with hitting these visible veins.
3) Why is it that sometimes after digging for a vein, it will appear to register, yet when I plunge it, I still miss? This happens frequently when I go back to try older veins that I've already kind of "used up," so to speak. I'll push the needle in where I KNOW for a fact there's a vein, pull back, gently adjust the needle back and forth and at slightly different angles... then I'll start to pull the needle almost all the way out, and blood will suddenly register. It won't completely fill the bubble like it's supposed to when you hit a really good, fresh, new vein, but it will shoot up throughout the solution and clearly be red and flowing freely. Yet I know the vein can't be that close to the surface (with the needle almost all the way out of my skin) because I know how deep the vein was when it was fresh and I was using it regularly. This is confirmed by the fact that if I try to push the plunger at this position, despite registering, it will be a very painful miss. My thinking it that when the needle is deep, it punctures the vein, and when I pull it out the blood kind of pools in the tissue around the vein, and that's what the needle is sucking up? Thinking this, I'll usually push the needle in slightly deeper in the direction that the blood registered from, and I can usually manage to push the plunger without any pain, so I'm assuming at this point I'm firmly in the vein. However, a lot of the time at this point the liquid heroin will start to leak back out of the injection site (with the needle still inside, mid-injection), and I also don't really get that long sought-after rush. I usually get mildly high, but with a much slower onset. Does this mean the vein is just totally fucked? Like it's clotted/clogged and the blood isn't flowing freely? Is there a technique that can be used to capitalize on these oddly-registering veins?
Anyway, sorry that got kind of long, I was trying to describe things with the best detail I could. Appreciate any and all help. Thanks guys.
1) Can I shoot up in the veins in my upper arms/shoulders/torso/abdomen? I'm a very pale person, and I can actually see a number of light blue veins all over my shoulders, chest, stomach, etc. Are these veins good to IV in? I know they're more surface veins than anything, and they aren't major mainlines like in the elbow crook or behind the knee, but I figure if I can shoot in the tiny veins in my hands, these should work, right? However, I've had difficulty hitting them sometimes, which brings me to my next question...
2) How deep are most veins? I have a real hard time gauging how deep to push the needle (I use 1/2" or 'long points'), and what angle to approach it at. Especially with these veins that I can see through my skin... are they really, really close to the surface, or does it just seem that way because they're visible? Are they actually deeper than they appear? For example, I know that the vein in my elbow crook is fairly deep, as that vein is why I buy long points in the first place; I was unable to reach it with short points for the most part. Are some veins really shallow, and some deeper? I'm thinking about investing in a box of short points to see if they help with hitting these visible veins.
3) Why is it that sometimes after digging for a vein, it will appear to register, yet when I plunge it, I still miss? This happens frequently when I go back to try older veins that I've already kind of "used up," so to speak. I'll push the needle in where I KNOW for a fact there's a vein, pull back, gently adjust the needle back and forth and at slightly different angles... then I'll start to pull the needle almost all the way out, and blood will suddenly register. It won't completely fill the bubble like it's supposed to when you hit a really good, fresh, new vein, but it will shoot up throughout the solution and clearly be red and flowing freely. Yet I know the vein can't be that close to the surface (with the needle almost all the way out of my skin) because I know how deep the vein was when it was fresh and I was using it regularly. This is confirmed by the fact that if I try to push the plunger at this position, despite registering, it will be a very painful miss. My thinking it that when the needle is deep, it punctures the vein, and when I pull it out the blood kind of pools in the tissue around the vein, and that's what the needle is sucking up? Thinking this, I'll usually push the needle in slightly deeper in the direction that the blood registered from, and I can usually manage to push the plunger without any pain, so I'm assuming at this point I'm firmly in the vein. However, a lot of the time at this point the liquid heroin will start to leak back out of the injection site (with the needle still inside, mid-injection), and I also don't really get that long sought-after rush. I usually get mildly high, but with a much slower onset. Does this mean the vein is just totally fucked? Like it's clotted/clogged and the blood isn't flowing freely? Is there a technique that can be used to capitalize on these oddly-registering veins?
Anyway, sorry that got kind of long, I was trying to describe things with the best detail I could. Appreciate any and all help. Thanks guys.
