Missing vein led to emergency room visit...and now can't hit a vein for anything....

[refurbished]

So, I heard this story about a young pretty girl who for some reason or another got her rocks off (no pun intended) by injecting crack cocaine in her free time. Well, her free time used to be in between classes and on occasional weekend off, but recently she has taken on the hobby as a full time career- and has been pleased- since she is also able to keep a low key part time job to pay bills that don't won't accept her form of bartering as payment and she has been able to keep up with her image...only until recently...

It started about two weeks ago, so I heard, that she missed a shot in her arm- and I can say this has happened to her a few times before, but she does pride herself in the precision and cleanliness that she typically has in the preparation and administration of her "doses" but the missed shot happened to be in the best place in her arm. She was very upset, as the bump was not showing any signs of dissolving...and has left a rather large and hard place on her arm (I saw a picture and it is looking like an abscess)

Well, since her favorite spot is no longer in use, she has been forced to try new veins and areas- but still keeping it in the arms- well, apparently she has had a hard time doing this- and had an evening last week when she turned herself into a human pin cushion....not very pretty (I saw another picture) and woke up the next day (since she was able to sleep since there wasn't much tweeking going on with 2/3 of her shots missed that night) and woke up the next day with extreme pain and EXTREME swelling in her hands and arms- the pain must of been unbearable because I heard that she went to a small urgent care- who then referred her to the emergency room saying that she had an infection in her blood-

The ER story is too long to repeat, but I guess the nurses could find a vein either-docs said she even had 2 damaged arteries- forcing them to draw blood from middle finger and put a port in her leg for the IV antibiotics- after 2 days and plenty of non narcotic pain medicine she argued with dr to discharge her (and was hoping to sneak out with the port still in leg to help her take a few doses that evening- but no such luck- they ripped that shit right out- ouch) and she has been home for two days- last night she decided she was ready again, although arms are still hurting- and she spent $200 and her provider broke off a big hunk from a slab- she invested in new rigs after visiting many pharmacies and coming up with one lie and another came up with 14 new works- then could hardly get home fast enough to partake-

well, she missed EVERY FUCKING SHOT ALL NIGHT LONG- she couldn't hit a vein for anything- hours and hours of missing shot after shot- using each rig until it was so dull it couldn't hardly break the skin or until it wouldn't suck up anything from dried blood inside- (not the dark blood from veins, but the light blood from puncturing the tissue). Also, sometimes when putting needle in wrist she was trying to explain to me a tingling feeling she would get in her fingers-which scared her as well...

I heard she was very frustrated- not being able to get off even one time, and further damaging her arms and fingers- I didn't know what to say when I hard this story- but I could tell she is at her wits end, since she certainly doesn't want to break this habit, at least not right now. I think she just wants to hear the train coming again- she wants to get off- and has been feening so badly! She doesn't want to throw away hundreds of dollars on crack that's just stuck in her arms...and she doesn't know what to do. At this point the skin on her arms is extremely hard and swollen in many places, and she knows that soon she will need to get at least two of the abscesses lanced, but in the meantime, she would give anything to get a few hits in her-

I also am pretty sure she is using apple cider vinegar to break down the crack...if maybe there is something better, she hasn't had much luck with lemon juice...

She has also attempted using her feet in the past- a few years ago- and she has cute, but very boney feet- and the results never were very good.

So if any of you out there could give some advice or words of wisdom from a long experience in this field of study I will be sure to pass it along to her.

Thanks!

 

[_a_A_C_c_]

fyi, BL discourages people from using the third person or things like SWIM. it is usually pretty obvious that you are talking about yourself.

that said, i am moving this from anon to BDD.

 

[effie]

Okay. First of all it sounds like your friend is reaching the end of her shooting career.. she has caused herself serious harm. Continuing down this path is going to end in disaster - make a list of all the damage she has already done (veins, arteries, abscesses..)

If she insists on keeping trying there are some things that she can consider, although at this stage it is probably too late. Any veins which have been damaged to the point of thrombosis, collapse or scarring are unlikely to regenerate now. If she does have any veins left it is absolutely vital that she uses a good technique, fresh needle every time she sticks it in herself (they can become blunt after just one time and tear the vein/surrounding tissue, causing veins to collapse), rotates her sites (tricky I know when you don't have many options), sterile technique etc. Is her injecting technique good? It sounds like it may well not be. Take a look at the IV complications megathread, it has details of good technique there as well as how to spot abscesses and other complications.

There are tricks which make veins easier to hit. Has she looked at a vein map? There are some veins which are felt but not seen - in fact often the best veins are like this. She should get used to how a vein feels (and how an artery feels - it is absolutely essential she doesn't hit an artery again, she could lose a limb). Warming up, taking a bath/shower, keeping really well hydrated and lifting weights all help too.

Really though - shooting stims is the worst; they are vasoconstrictors, so they make hitting veins harder and damage more likely, and they tend to be fiendy, leading to multiple shots which really damage veins. Your friend just needs to stop - she's already damaged all the veins she and the medical staff can find, plus a couple of arteries, plus missed a shot necessitating a visit to the ER.

She needs to get her remaining abscesses seen to ASAP or she is at risk of developing potentially fatal septicaemia and/or losing a limb.

Apple cider is not a good thing to use to break down the crack either. It's not sterile and can damage veins. Best thing is sealed sterile packets of citric acid or vitamin c (not powdered vit C tablets).

I'm going to move this to Other Drugs as they handle a lot of the IV stuff.

BDD > OD

ps I've written your friend in my reply but as a_c said I suspect this is you. If so, please say so in your posts, we use the first person here.

 

[madog11]

We don't allow swim, my pet parrot, my sisters donkey etc on here... it doesnt protect you and it makes it incredibly hard to read. I would appriciate it if you would edit it out of your post.

Please read the BLUA and OD Guidelines.