SirCow
Greenlighter
The I.V. route of administration can damage vascular tissue and in some cases cause thrombosis (formation of clots). My friend began injecting opiates about two months ago and for the duration she used the superficial veins of both forearms as targets. Last week she woke up in a lot of pain and her left hand/wrist were very swollen. She let me take a look at her arm and I noticed that her antecubital vein (the one on the opposite side of your arm from your elbow) was aneurysmal. There was a segment of the vessel that was about 1.5x larger than the one on her right arm and it was warm and hard as a rock as well. Her left hand was severely edematous and tender- warm, red, and swollen from her fingertips up to her wrist.
She was adamant about not doing anything to treat it and just avoided using that arm/hand and took more opiates for the pain. Two days later there was no improvement- she kept telling me that her hand has been swollen like this in the past and that it would go away on its own in another day or two. I was still worried though because the combination of the severe swelling and the way her vein now looked like puffy mutilated sausage made me suspect a clot. After a lot of arguing I finally convinced her to go to the emergency department at the county hospital so she could get it looked at by a doctor (she has no insurance).
The doctor ordered a venous ultrasound of the affected vessel which confirmed the presence of a segment that was thrombosed with extension of thrombus into the adjacent undilated vein. I voiced my concern about the clot dislodging and embolising to her lungs (which is very serious and can be fatal) but the doctor reassured me that only happens when the clot is in a deep vein and most commonly from the lower extremities. So we were told that the body would dissolve the clot on its own over 1-2 weeks and she was discharged with instructions to keep her left arm elevated and to take an anti-inflammatory drug (ibuprofen) for the pain/swelling.
It has now been one week since the visit to the hospital and there has been no improvement whatsoever. Additionally both of us have had a lot of anxiety because we are still worried about the risk of pulmonary embolism. We are going to go back to the hospital tomorrow morning, but are interested if anyone has had experience with something like this, or has heard of a superficial upper extremity venous thrombosis leading to some serious complication like an embolism.
Thank you if you took the time to read and consider this, it’s my first post!
She was adamant about not doing anything to treat it and just avoided using that arm/hand and took more opiates for the pain. Two days later there was no improvement- she kept telling me that her hand has been swollen like this in the past and that it would go away on its own in another day or two. I was still worried though because the combination of the severe swelling and the way her vein now looked like puffy mutilated sausage made me suspect a clot. After a lot of arguing I finally convinced her to go to the emergency department at the county hospital so she could get it looked at by a doctor (she has no insurance).
The doctor ordered a venous ultrasound of the affected vessel which confirmed the presence of a segment that was thrombosed with extension of thrombus into the adjacent undilated vein. I voiced my concern about the clot dislodging and embolising to her lungs (which is very serious and can be fatal) but the doctor reassured me that only happens when the clot is in a deep vein and most commonly from the lower extremities. So we were told that the body would dissolve the clot on its own over 1-2 weeks and she was discharged with instructions to keep her left arm elevated and to take an anti-inflammatory drug (ibuprofen) for the pain/swelling.
It has now been one week since the visit to the hospital and there has been no improvement whatsoever. Additionally both of us have had a lot of anxiety because we are still worried about the risk of pulmonary embolism. We are going to go back to the hospital tomorrow morning, but are interested if anyone has had experience with something like this, or has heard of a superficial upper extremity venous thrombosis leading to some serious complication like an embolism.
Thank you if you took the time to read and consider this, it’s my first post!
