I think feet and hands would be equally disgusting, even with isopropyl I couldn't do that.
Agreed man.. I mean unless you have absolutely no other options you are best off to stay away from both. Bacteria is just one of the issues.. hands and feet have no fat on them, especially feet, and if you miss the pain/swelling is considerably worse. Also, the further away from your heart the thinner the veins tend to get. The chance of hitting/knicking an artery is much greater as everything is closer together. Packed in there with your veins and arteries are a shitload of nerves.. It;s easy to cause trauma to a nerve and one single nick of a nerve can easily cause temporary to permanent loss of feeling in and around the area of the severed nerve.
Now on the topic of bacteria.. like the above poster said, hands are the port authority for your germs...they are picking up all different types of germs/bacteria all day as you go about your tasks. On top of the bacteria transferred from touching something with your hands, staph is an extremely common germ that grows on many peoples skin. If I remember correctly from a health course taken in college, 1/3 of people have staph growing on their skin (if not more). This is not harmful to you or others simply growing on your skin, but it can cause an infection extremely easy if it gets into an open wound or you push it through the skin into your blood stream when injecting. Staph infections in the blood can actually be pretty dangerous because some don't respond to antibiotics.
Prepping the injection site (pay special attention if using hands or feet):
First, wash your hands good with anti-bacterial soap. Now prep the injection site. If you have ever been prepped for surgery you have probably experienced the vigourous scrubbing/cleaning with soap and water the nurse will do, nearly chafing your skin. Simply tearing open an iso alcohol swab and giving a few wipes does not accomplish anything noteworthy if anything at all.
Alcohol does not rid your skin of germs.Using soap and water for a vigorous scrub is more valuable then using an alcohol swab. You want to get these germs OFF your skin. What alcohol does it causes the water/moisture to evaporate.. and germs are basically moisture in a cell wall therefor causing them to dry/shrivel up (there is a medical term I cant remember). This takes atleast a few minutes to happen. If you inject seconds after swabbing you have not given time for the alcohol to pull the moisture from the germs. So lets say 5 minutes has passed and your germs are nice and shriveled.. they are still on top of your skin sitting there dry. If you do not wash the injection site with soap and water prior to the injection, you risk pushing these shriveled/dry germs through the skin when you IV.
Also, a side note about hydrogen peroxide... This also does not kill germs/bacteria.. it;s great for cleaning out cuts etc.. because the bubbling you see helps to lift dirt particles and whatnot from the scrape.
