Heroin Shooting heroin: Basically losing/missing the vein after tourniquet removal

[SteeleyJ]

U Should! It hurts to blow a vein!
The only thing is sometimes it makes me lose my register.... But it only detracts a lil deeper so I just push it in a bit and usually it's good to go again

I know, the only place i do is my hands for just this reason but my arms don't blow.

 

[st8uphooked4now]

I recently shot up H and i thought since i saw blood fill the syringe i was injecting it right...but why did i get a bump and my whole arm started to itch?

 

[bingey]

I recently shot up H and i thought since i saw blood fill the syringe i was injecting it right...but why did i get a bump and my whole arm started to itch?

It's possible that you were shooting in the wrong direction (the point should always be towards the heart) this will cause a temporary bulge/bump , or possibly the vein was too small and you injected to much too quickly. and if you use a tourniquet always undo it before pushing down. that's about it can't think of anything else , itching doesn't necessarily indicate anything.

 

[mrblackman]

wrap tourniquet higher up then usual from point of injection and dont tie tightly as to stretch skin so when you loosen it your arm wont move - I tend to slowly let the tourniquet loosen as im pushing the shot in and have never had a problem and my veins are beat

 

[garcian]

I know this is an old thread, but I feel this is relevant as no one else really covered it.
First off it sounds like the OP either was holding the needle at a 90 degree angle to his arm which is asking for trouble or he was registering and then actually letting go of the needle and using his free hand to remove the tourniquet which is also ineffective.
The smoothest and easiest technique for shooting up with a tourniquet is the following:
First off learn to hold the needle in your hand in a way that you can pull back and push in the plunger without adjusting the position of your hand and wrist, use the pinky, ring, and middle fingers to grip the cylinder and your index finger and thumb to grip the plunger. This should allow you to, in one coherent motion, insert the needle, pull back the plunger to register, inject, and remove the needle without letting go of the needle or moving any part of the hand besides the index finger and thumb.
Now for the tourniquet employ a simple square knot to tie a loop on one end of the string and put the other end through it so you have something that requires tension to maintain tightness and isn't tied. So now you can apply the tourniquet and hold the tightness with your teeth and with your free hand find the vein and register and while easily keeping the needle where it is you can release the tension on the tourniquet and push down the plunger without any hassle or chance of things going wrong.

I imagine most experienced IV users have more or less figured this out, but for people who aren't sure of what they're doing, just knowing this method eliminates like 90% of the chances of something going wrong when shooting into an arm where you can only use one hand. I'm always a little puzzled to see people doing things like awkwardly re-maneuvering their hand around the needle to go from pulling to pushing the plunger or let a needle dangle out of the vein while untying a tourniquet they tied in an actual knot around their arm...

EDIT: I didn't realize hitting tab would execute the post... so I accidentally posted it incomplete and had to edit to finish it.

 

[XoxThatgirl]

Help.. I've done it all wrong!

Hi, soooo how do forums work.. New to this stuff... Hmm ok, so I know this girl who caught her bf shooting... She always swore it off because 7 years prior she had a real problem and almost died from shooting k (but only into muscles.)and she knew she'd like it was too much, she's prone to ocd habits. Wanting to make him feel bad for doing it she decides to too! Well now, because she and he have no clue really what they're doing her and his hands are both completely swollen. This probably is from missing the veins and still continuing. She's really scared now and isntbsure whether she should go to er.... Does anyone have any insite. I'm afraid she may get an infection or worse.

I know this is an old thread, but I feel this is relevant as no one else really covered it.
First off it sounds like the OP either was holding the needle at a 90 degree angle to his arm which is asking for trouble or he was registering and then actually letting go of the needle and using his free hand to remove the tourniquet which is also ineffective.
The smoothest and easiest technique for shooting up with a tourniquet is the following:
First off learn to hold the needle in your hand in a way that you can pull back and push in the plunger without adjusting the position of your hand and wrist, use the pinky, ring, and middle fingers to grip the cylinder and your index finger and thumb to grip the plunger. This should allow you to, in one coherent motion, insert the needle, pull back the plunger to register, inject, and remove the needle without letting go of the needle or moving any part of the hand besides the index finger and thumb.
Now for the tourniquet employ a simple square knot to tie a loop on one end of the string and put the other end through it so you have something that requires tension to maintain tightness and isn't tied. So now you can apply the tourniquet and hold the tightness with your teeth and with your free hand find the vein and register and while easily keeping the needle where it is you can release the tension on the tourniquet and push down the plunger without any hassle or chance of things going wrong.

I imagine most experienced IV users have more or less figured this out, but for people who aren't sure of what they're doing, just knowing this method eliminates like 90% of the chances of something going wrong when shooting into an arm where you can only use one hand. I'm always a little puzzled to see people doing things like awkwardly re-maneuvering their hand around the needle to go from pulling to pushing the plunger or let a needle dangle out of the vein while untying a tourniquet they tied in an actual knot around their arm...

EDIT: I didn't realize hitting tab would execute the post... so I accidentally posted it incomplete and had to edit to finish it.