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Heroin Lost Control of left hand/wrist from shooting into elbow vein (cubital)?

Cone

Cone

Bluelighter
Joined
Jan 18, 2006
Messages
370
Location
Bako Cali
I woke up this morning and noticed a signfiicant loss of motor skills in my left hand this morning.

I'm unable to move both my fingers and entire wrist in my left hand. It feels as if my hand has fallen asleep, with slight pins and needles sensation in my left hand.

But heres the thing: last night I was involved in a low speed collision in my car. The collision happened whilst I was doing something incredibly stupid - reading a text message while driving slowly down a residential street. I clipped a car parked on the side of the road. No airbags deployed, and I was travelling at about 15mph.

My hand worked fine at the time as far as I could tell.

Extremely pissed at myself for doing so, and I wasn't even intoxicated.

After sorting out all the paperwork i came home and laid into a shot and promptly fell asleep in my chair. I fell asleep on my arm rest and my arm went numb. I remained in this position for 4-5 hours until waking up to find my left arm had fallen heavily asleep.

Shortly thereafter I noticed I had lost nearly all of my fine motor control of my left hand and couldn't raise my wrist at all. It simply flops around when I try to lift my hand.

Now heres the kicker: I've been shooting (successfully) into my left (and right) elbow cubital veins exclusively. I know I didn't miss my shot. There isn't any sign of trauma at the injection site or anything unusual there. No tingling or burning at the site, or redness. I don't believe I missed the shot at all. No bruising to speak of.

Is this possible nerve damage from my shot?

Is it possibly just damage from the way I fell asleep on it?

Or did I damage my wrist from the car accident and didn't notice until the adrenaline wore off?

My wrist doesn't appear to be broken (yet), as it isn't swollen or bruised at all. Also, there is a distinct absence of pain.

I hope its the latter, and not permanent nerve damage from my nightly shot.

Has anyone ever heard of such a thing happening after shooting dope (possibly incorrectly)?

I will be visiting my GP ASAP, but I just don't know if waiting until then is going to make my situation worse.

The strength is slowly coming back to my hand/wrist as we speak, but my fine motor skills are still a complete wreck.

Thank you.

I know BL isn't a physicians board, but I know a lot of you are knowledgeable about shooting dope so if the problem lies in the shot, I'm sure someone else here has experienced it as well and can hopefully point me in the right direction.

Sorry if this is the wrong forum, I just figured I'd hit most of BL's IV H user base in OD is all.

Thanks again.
 
If you rub hard behind your funny bone on that arm does it feel like little shocks going down to your fingers? I'm guessing it's your nerve playing up because you fell asleep with your elbow on the armrest, if so it will go right after a few days, keep your arm extended and dont lean on your elbow.

I'm no doctor tho :)
 
something similar happened to me, in my first car wreck my wrist hit the wheel in an awkward position, and while it was a bit sore at the time, i noticed the next day it hurt alot worse.

from reading your post, i would say its a combo of the collision and sleeping on it whilst nodding out. but i am no doctor.

at least you have a good head on your shoulders and will contact your GP, i know weekends arent the easiest time to get ahold of em. all we can do is speculate but the doc will be able to tell you whats what.

good luck, and keep us updated.
 
your hand is probably asleep. if you broke your wrist in the accident you wouldn't be able to move your fingers but instead of the tingling numbness you would feel excruciating pain, and I highly doubt you would be flopping your hand around like a rag doll if this was the case. try to rotate injection sites more, make sure your arm is better by the end of the day if it isn't than go to the ER or free clinic.
 
If this sensation has lasted for for more than a few minutes after waking up I would go to the ER. The same thing always happens to me since I sleep on my side, sometimes just my hand & sometimes my whole arm depending on where I pinched the blood flow off. But even after sleeping in such a position for up to 8 hrs. I have never had the totally numb, not able to control my fingers at all feeling for more than a few minutes before I got the intense pins & needles. Also it has never taken more than a half hour for my hand/arm to get back to normal. You may have some type of nerve damage from either the shot or sleeping on your arm for too long if the total numbness has persisted for longer than a hr. IMO. I'm not a doctor though just my advice.
 
You most likely have what's called wrist drop, I had this from a car accident a couple years ago and made a post about it but i can't find it.. anyway in my case it took almost 6 months to be able to use my wrist again, pretty fucking annoying but it can last anywhere from a week to year.

I'd see a doctor cause if you don't it will just get worse.


Just Google Wrist Drop Wiki, for more info.
 
BlueberryfishY said:
You most likely have what's called wrist drop, I had this from a car accident a couple years ago and made a post about it but i can't find it.. anyway in my case it took almost 6 months to be able to use my wrist again, pretty fucking annoying but it can last anywhere from a week to year.

I'd see a doctor cause if you don't it will just get worse.


Just Google Wrist Drop Wiki, for more info.
Click to expand...

6 months of not being able to use your wrist? Damn man. That sucks, hah.
 
I gave myself cubital tunnel syndrome the other night when passing out on the floor after a stim comedown. I slept with my arm bent up under my head on the left side about 4 days ago and my ring and pinky finger are both still tingly and numb. I am a bass player too so it's really quite the hassle.
 
Crashing said:
I gave myself cubital tunnel syndrome the other night when passing out on the floor after a stim comedown. I slept with my arm bent up under my head on the left side about 4 days ago and my ring and pinky finger are both still tingly and numb. I am a bass player too so it's really quite the hassle.
Click to expand...

I nodded out once with my hand in a really fucked position and had a show 2 days later... it was my picking hand (guitar) and needless to say it wasn't my best performance ever... Hah. It looked like I had a floppy dead fish for a strumming hand.
 
OP here

Thanks for the sage advice all.

I haven't gone to a doc yet because I've been in and out of town all week on business meetings.

Something new has developed, or its been this way the whole time. My elbow is 90% numb (underneath part) in an area about the size of a 3"x5" index card.

I'm not gonna lie, its scary as shit... but I had fun playing a prank on my coworker earlier by shoving a sterilized paper-clip into my skin until it penetrated.

Tomorrow I'll go in - my doc is an older gentleman so he's really conservative and old fashioned. I'm just curious how he's going to react to the huge tracks in both my cubital veins.

I've had blood drawn (for personal testing... NOT donating lol) with huge tracks before, but since I look like such an innocent young man the nurses don't say a thing - it would be untenable for someone as clean cut as me to be an IV dope user. I'm sure many here on BL are on the same boat.

Anyway, my grip strength is merely ~30% of my dominant hand. I can't hold a glass or pikc up a glass except by holding it with my palm facing up.

The range of motion is returning - ~60% of normal vs ~10% when i first made the OP.

I'm just wondering whether the doc will just blame it on the dope and walk away. Clearly the timing with the car accident has something to do with it.

We'll see.
 
I had kind of a similar problem about a year ago. I prepped up 120mg of oxy, and all my other veins i usually use were pretty much shot to shit so i used the big fat one thats in the thumb side of the wrist. Never used it before and it looked tempting so i said fuck it. I put the needle in, registered, and shot, and the minute i took the rig out my whole arm up to my elbow went numb. This lasted tor about a week and a half until everything went back to normal. Im quite sure i hit a nerve, and it scared the living shit out of me because it never happened in my 5+ years of injecting. Maybe you did something similar, but if it doesnt get better soon man, then definetly talk to a doc. But it sounds like you hit a nerve or knicked one...or i could have something to do with how u slept or ur accident...alot of variables bro ha. But good luck man, keep us posted on whats going on.
 
Radial nerver damage for sure, i had the numbness around my elbow when i had it too, everything is leading to radial nerve damage/wrist drop.

Have it checked out like you said.
 
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