Harm Reduction Repeated "cotton fever" despite micron filtering

[-Guido-]

Lose the media bottle. Never store solutions you are going to IV.

 

[dais]

Thanks for the thoughtful response.
1-I use a pre-sterilized, stoppered media bottle to store the solution. I swab it vigorously with alcohol every time I use it and keep the solution in it for 3 weeks or so. The solution is made with bacteriosatic water and I was under the impression it should keep sterile for at least a month.
2-I suppose sometimes the alcohol doesn't completely evap off my skin before injecting, but I highly doubt the minuscule amount that might make it into my system would cause this reaction.
3- I thoroughly wash my hands
4- as you said, I doutpbt it's an allergy since it only happens once every few months.
5- psychological seems very unlikely especially considering that I actually spike a fever, it's not just subjective symptoms.
6- always always use a fresh syringe and never would use the syringe I use to dissolve the pills to do injecting.

Again, given my technique how the hell do I get these immune reactions every few months.

are you using a preservative along with the bacteriostatic water?

 

[Uncle Uncle]

I have an issue with many of the 'harm reduction' cliches that seem to be automatic responses to various topics. Most people aren't going to use a fresh needle every time, hardly anybody is going to use a syringe filter every time, bacteriostatic water might as well not even exist, etc., etc,, etc. Experience-based info is more likely to be well received than authoritative sounding blanket statements that sound like they came from the government, IMO.

BUT, cotton fever is one of the downsides of abuse that both really sucks and can be avoided. One of the most miserable hour or two long side effects of IV use that I've ever experienced, no doubt. The first time I had it I thought I was going to die, for real. After trying every avoidance method and still getting it, I just don't save my cottons anymore. To avoid temptation, they get flushed as soon as I'm done with them. Dope is cheap and plentiful (depending on your place in the economic spectrum and location), and cotton fever is a nasty-assed bitch. I try to plan ahead and avoid desperation, and if I ever get desperate there aren't any old cottons around. I'd rather suck on a subutex or eat a few opanas than burn for an hour. Yes, if you take all the precautions you can minimize the chances of getting it, and everybody has their own safe protocols and recipes, but for me it's not worth it. So I flush the cottons and haven't had the fever in a decade.

Readers will do what they want to do, I'm not trying to tell anyone how to live. Just what I do and why I do it and what the results are. Most of my program is designed to limit all the risks while still enjoying the dope, and it took me a lot of years to figure out the best way to go about things for me. NFW I would have listened to discussion forum experts when I was a youngster, but if your 97th bout of cotton fever is raging, maybe you'll think about getting in front of the supply problem as best you can so that you don't need to keep your bag of cottons in the freezer and all the rest.

FWIW and QED, the original poster can't have had cotton fever if no cotton was involved. But, the odds of the claimed ultra-hygienic protocols being actually followed as written are quite low. Probably microwaved a hairy-assed ball of moldy cottons and smooshed all the water out of them with the back end of a rig that had just touched his thumb that hadn't been washed all day, etc., just like everyone else does or did...

 

[m060mm]

To piggyback on TPD's post, microns aren't 100% effective. They do let some material through that is larger than the stated size.

Here's where rampant speculation comes in: you may be very sensitive to something in the pills, or a particular bacteria that is on the cusp of getting through. It gets through, but only so much that the concentration is high enough on rare occasions. You may also be sensitizing yourself with the sub-reaction exposure, so when it passes that threshold, it's a full blown immune response.

Also, could it be a repeated viral infection? Again, the sensitivity perspective, combined with the fact that many viruses are smaller than 0.22 (correct me if I'm wrong).

Seconding less storage time. Best of luck!

 

[junkieman412]

I think it was already suggested here, it sounds like precipitated withdrawls. Shakes, fever, and chills, especially the chills are what gave it away. I've went into precipitated withdrawls a couple times recently from subutex and suboxone. It actually never happened to me before but recently after low doses of opiates and some subutex and suboxone I have went into precipitated withdrawls. I was prescribed to suboxone for years and it never happened to me until recently.
To stop it one time after hours I took 2 lorcets and the wds went away. So to test whether this is wds or not why don't you wait a few hours after the shot that makes you sick and if you have enough pop a few of those dilaudeds, or if u have any percs or vics pop some of those. If not shoot another dilauded but I would recommend eating them because a shot when you are in precipitated wds may or may not be a good idea I just reccomend eating some pills if you have them. Let us know I'm curious as to what it is.
I highly doubt its from any of your equipment, iv done some dirty, dirty shit while shooting up and I've never even had cotton fever. It seems some people are more succeptable to it. You know what, if it was cotton fever from what id seen you would know it. I mean I've seen people uncotrollably shivering, shaking, and in terrible agony and pain from cotton fever. People laid out barely wanting to or being able to move. Any bluelighters seen or experienced cotton fever where they were shivering or shaking uncontrollably or is this not what I have witnessed, possibly what I saw was a reaction to something other than cotton fever but that's what they said it was.

 

[Swain]

Why would he be getting precipitated withdrawals? He is getting the cotton fever after a full agonist shot...

@the OP, I agree even though you are using bacteriostatic water, you should either stop storing the solution for 3 weeks or try storing it in a fridge or freezer at the very least. Considering all the trouble you go through it's realyl weird you are getting cotton fever.

Out of thousands of shots I have yet to experience cotton fever and while I do use new pins every time and clean cottons etc.. I rarely swab my arm which is a big no-no in a hospital setting. WConsidering you are using a .2um micron bacteria shoudl be large enough that it is filtered out. It has to be from the storage process that is the only logical answer

 

[martin33]

maybe those micron filters have cotton in them, i believe cotton fever is caused by bacteria in the cotton, not the actual cotton itself

 

[Swain]

maybe those micron filters have cotton in them, i believe cotton fever is caused by bacteria in the cotton, not the actual cotton itself

cotton fever does not have to have ANY connectino to cotton. It is slang for fever/sickness induced by introducing bacteria to your bloodstream. That is it..easy as that. And no, a micron filter does nto have cotton in it lol.

 

[dais]

there is also a second, longer lasting and nastier version which is caused by foreign particulates getting into your bloodstream.

 

[tpd01883]

Also to elaborate, cotton fever is caused by endotoxins which are small proteins usually, small enough to fit through a .22 micron filter.

Bacteriostatic water usually uses benzyl alcohol or some other preservative. And while this will slow bacterial growth it won't prevent it completely. Micron filtering is good, but if you don't wipe the top fo the vial, and ONLY use clean needles/syringes to draw from your vial then you are quite possibly doing more harm than good. Clean needles are a must, clean syringes as well if you push air into the vial before drawing so you are not drawing against a vacuum. The bacteriostatic water will not keep staph from culturing inside the vial if you stick dirty needles into it or do not clean the top of the vial before sticking a needle through. I speak from expirience. I once got a staph infection from a similar situation, and I was just using the bacteriostatic water straight into the spoon, and I was only using that one vial for maybe two days. I wound up with staph infections in 3 different spots on my arm, and no, I didn't miss 3 times. It was from sticking a dirty needle into the vial to draw. I figured the benzyl alcohol would preserve it for the day or two I was going to be using it, however it didn't.

I don't think the op is experiencing precipitated withdrawal.

I agree with the poster above though who said to put the solution in the refridgerator. This will also greatly help to reduce bacterial growth. Hope the OP found a solution to his problem by now. Sorry to dig up this old thread, I just wanted to make sure that people researching micron filters through search engine knew that they won't necessarily filter out everything that could contaminate a solution. ESP not the endotoxins left on cotton from bacteria, they remain even in the absence of the bacteria that produced them. And yes dais the longer and nastier version is known as sepsis, colloquially refered to as blood poisoning. Cotton fever is an immune reaction that mimicks sepsis as your body attacks the endotoxins that usually signify bacterial presence.

 

[abstractanchors]

Very helpful info

Was just reading this thread, and I wanted to point out that a couple people said cotton fever or dirty hit syndrom comes from an immune reaction to bacteria. However thats not completely true. It is an immune response but it's not directly from bacteria. It is from an endotoxin produced by a bacteria that commonly grows on cotton.

The way your body identifies attackers is through the use of antibodies. Antibodies 'tag' attackers so lymphocytes can come through and consume them, or envelope them to neutralize said attackers. The antibodies however only interact with smaller protein molecules located on the outside of bacteria though, rather than the whole bacteria itself, so my guess is that the endotoxin this bacteria produces is probably similar to a protein used to identify many other bacteria and although it's harmless, your body freaks out thinking it's being invaded by a bunch of bacteria, when really it is just the small endotoxin protein.

Also still just guessing here, but this protein is more than likely small enough to float on through a micron filter unmolested, while bacteria themselves cannot. Hence why some still get the reaction even when micron filtering.

Lastly, the reason I was seraching for dirty hit information is because after an injection I got immense joint pain and a headache... I thought i was dieing. This came on immediately after injecting, maybe like 30 seconds peaking after 5 mins. It felt like every joint i had was in a vice grip but especially my lower back and neck. After another hit at another time I determined it was the Q-tips I was using... "Swissper's" brand. I suspect something that they use to bind the cotton to the plastic tip causes the reaction. So anyway, not to hijack the thread but I thought I would post what info I had.

Very helpful