Heroin Question about shooting up.....

[DariaAnne]

I've been shooting heroin for a few years now and I've noticed that everytime there's any sort of, slamming tutorial, the writer always says to loosen your tourniquet after registering but before actually injecting.

For the time that I've been using I almost always just left it on, slowly injected myself and then once I was done immediately removing the tourniquet. My reasoning is that I've lost*** so many veins after taking it off regardless how slowly and carefully I or someone else took it off(I'm a VERY SMALL girl with VERY low muscle content so I'm always cold, but overall I just have horrible veins for shooting up).

I'm just wondering why it's better, if it is, to loosen the tourniquet before actually injecting you're shot, and if severe damage is likely to occur if you don't loosen your tourniquet?

And I know you can blow out a vein with too much pressure, but i'm talking about a small (40-50 unit shot tops!)in the larger vein (the one on the inside of your elbow), does it really make that much of a difference?

***what I mean by lost is that once i pulled the plunger back a second time to make sure i was still in a vein, no more blood would come in

 

[Sepher]

Personally, i used to loosen the tourniquet before pushing the plunger on the needle. The tourniquet is there just to raise the vein. Once you've managed to hit it, the tourniquet's served its purpose, and at that point what you want is blood flow to carry away the shot as it goes in, so as to ensure you're not overly adding extra pressure within the vein in a way likely to cause damage to it. If you're using citric to cook the shot, you also don't really want it lingering about in the vein too long, or leaking back under the skin as the vein fills, as the acidity increases the chances of vein damage, and damage to local tissue from leaking. If the needle's not properly seated there's a chance the vein will pull away as you release the pressure and you'll miss the shot, but in a large vein that's not usually much of a problem. It's in small veins like the ones between fingers and toes where it becomes more of an issue, but even there you don't really want to be still tied off as you inject, as the chances of blowing the vein are all the higher.

I've often found that girls have more trouble raising veins and keeping the needle in. Don't know if it's a difference in amount of muscle or fat content under the skin between men and women, but they seem to be less prominent, and harder to raise properly. Just something you're gonna have to live with if you're determined to continue injecting.

 

[BluffBoy]

Idk the answer to your question, but sometimes when I'm lazy and just loosen it a little or none at all, I will get a raised rash at the injection site. It usually will itch really bad then slowly disappear about 15-30 mins later. Does this not happen to you when you inject before taking it off?

 

[DariaAnne]

that happens to me sometimes.....and just i've gotten to a point where i just don't even try to losten it anymore, i'm not willing to waste anything. and some batches make me break out in this rash worse than other, some will make my whole body red and it just looks like an allergic reaction. the raised rash looks like hives??? i know that heroin can easily cause an allergic reaction and after seeing the same reaction from around half a dozen people it doesnt worry me in the slightest anymore to be honest. i used to freak the fuck out though.

 

[mrflowers00]

i always leave the tourniquet on as well