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Heroin Two misses and my vein is GONE ?!

T

TheKitchenChemist

Greenlighter
Joined
Jun 27, 2013
Messages
7
Ok, a little background here: I have been an oral and intranasal opioid user for a number of years, and I have recently crossed over to IV use. I have been using the vein in the crook as my right elbow, as it is a large, meaty vein, and difficult to miss (or so I thought).

A few days ago, I missed for the first time in this spot. What is strange to me is that, I drew back blood, depressed the plunger slowly, and had no stinging, burning, or other discomfort. I just, obviously, never got the IV rush. And, over the course of several hours, I developed a pretty hard lump, and some tenderness around the site.

I used the other arm for about two days, until my right arm felt better. When I went to use the right arm again (which to my knowledge appears to be healed), I inserted the needle, drew back blood, and depressed the plunger slowly… no burning, no discomfort, but no high either.

Sure enough, several hours later, there was again some mild tenderness surrounding the site.

Finally, I began using my other arm. Though, this vein is nothing like the one in my right arm.

I talked to a friend of mine who is very good at hitting veins. He located the vein in my right arm, below where the swelling is. He looked dead on to me, drew back blood, depressed the plunger. I waited, nothing..

That was yesterday, and today I cannot locate the vein at all. The mild tenderness subsides within a day after I shoot/miss. I admittedly have been stupidly using poor etiquette lately. (Not heating and not filtering).

But, I just don’t understand this. There was no abscess, no other complications, it is just as if the vein itself has vanished.

I was feeling around today, and felt what I though was a lump. Though, when comparing it to my other arm, I realize that this is muscle tissue, and not actually a lump.

I have probably injected into this vein a total ten times, if that.

What happened to this vein (the largest one that I can find on myself!)? Is there really something that I could have done to make this vein blowout or collapse? Wouldn’t I have noticed some more dramatic symptoms if something like this occurred?

What happens when veins collapse? I can only assume that they have to be replaced relatively quickly by a new vein?

What do you think my chances of being able to use this vein again (if it is even still there!) is, if I just use my other arm/hands for a while?

This is just too weird, and I’m concerned.
 
i dont think ur vein is gone, perhaps the bruising and puffing of the skin is where u missed is hiding the vein under the bruise/miss/puffing...i missed on my wrist a few times, and the vein wasnt there when i went to IV the next day, but after a few days and the swelling went down, my vein was still there right where it was all along, just the swelling covered it up
 
Thank you sooo much!

This is what I figured, but it is amazing how easily it went from being able to find this vein, to not being able to find a trace of it!

And, thank you for the advice as well. I have been feeling rather shitty lately, and have been in too big a hurry to slam dope.
I know that I need to prep and sanitize things more properly. It was just really troubling as this seems like it would be one of the longest-lasting
veins that I have.
 
when i used to get my drugs in the city, i would be SO INPATIENT. I would park on the side of the road to get high (knowing the risks of cops driving by, or people walking by etc) by doing this, i would get nervous, shakey, and in a hurry to shoot up so i dont get caught, by me doing this, i have missed veins, spilled dope off the cap, etc...being in a hurry only made it worse for me, i always missed the vein and would go home unhappy. Nowadays, i get the dope, and just drive home and do it in the comfort of my home, where im not shaking and paranoid, and i would take my time and find a vein, and not settle for less and say fuck it and shoot it in my body..dont put urself in a position to be in a hurry to slam ur dope..just wait a short period of time till ur in a safe place where u can do it correctly, i mean us addicts can go days in withdrawl without dope, or waiting on the corner for 45 mins for our dealer to show up, so we have the patience and willpower...just do it when u are not rushed..so u can do it the rite way and be happy
 
My dealer comes here. Or, if I am out somewhere I will wait until I get back here, as I find the same: That I am too shaky and too paranoid to be slamming in the car, or a public bathroom, etc. And, I can do things here much more sanitary. It's just when I get here that I start rushing, lol. I haven't been heating anything or filtering, just because it looks (I know) like relatively clean, easily-dissolving dope. I know that bacteria can't be seen, so, I really don't have justification for skimping on the preparation.


Psychedelic Jay said:
You swelled up around your vein...

Try your other arm...
Click to expand...

I have been using the other arm, but almost all of the swelling in this arm has gone down (at least some), and I still cannot find the vein.

I guess I will go to using my left arm, and give the right arm some time to heal.

I just cannot believe how large this vein is (was?) and now not being able to find ANY of it.

Though, I could not imagine doing any permanent damage in this short amount of time.

Still, even when I do think I am on top of the vein, I still draw back blood. But, when I inject, it turns out that I'm really NOT in a vein after all.

Could this blood just be residual blood sitting outside the vein from when I missed?
 
It sounds like the vein is inflamed. If you lay off of it, it will come back. That means like two weeks to a month of not touching that vein, maybe even longer. Give it some time to truly heal. If this happens again where you feel like you're flagging vut something's not right, don't continue to shoot there. You'd be surprised how easy it is to render a vein unusable. Most of the time they come back with enough time, but sometimes they don't.

Please start rotating sites. Even moving up and down on the same vein is better than shooting in one spot over and over. Look at vein maps, look at your body, and try to find new places to hit. I've been shotting opiates for 6 years on and off and I've only collapsed two veins (and surprise surprise, they were the main ones in the crook of each arm).

Now off topic but I feel I have to say something. 1. You never need to heat your dope. Heroin dissolves in cold water just fine and there's no beneift to heating up your solution. 2. FILTER!!!! Please, please, please. You can go to walmart and get a big ass box of qtips for under a dollar, and this gives you enough cotton to filter hundreds and hundreds of shots. There is NO reason not to do this unless you have a death wish. Now obviously micron filters are king but not always available, but there is no excuse not to at least use some cotton.
 
I have heated off and on, and I know that heating is debated all the time. Usually, if I do heat, I just heat the water to sterilize the vessel that I am mixing the dope in, then allow it to cool, and add the dope. But, I usually wipe out the inside off the cap I use to mix the dope in, and all other tools with an alcohol swab, so the heating of the water is probably not needed. (I also THOROUGHLY dry out the cap).

I used to always filter as well (cotton or cigarette filter), but, I wonder what a wad of cotton really is stopping from being drawn up into the syringe. I have used micron filters, but to most users, that money is money that could be spent on more dope. I suppose that any particulate matter that is filtered out of being drawn up into the syringe is better than none, but I would think that if there was a lot of non-dissolved particulate matter in the shot, the tiny gauge needles would clog.

Though, I know this isn't the case, as the membrane-holes in micron filter membranes are much smaller than a 31-gauge needle opening. I guess I just always wonder what a piece of cotton is really stopping, and that non-dissolved particulate matter is likely to be too small to be seen anyway. But, I guess anything is better than nothing.

Thank you for the input!
 
Last edited:
Thank you everybody for the replies!

As I said, my friend was able to locate the vein (or so I thought?), lower down (towards my forearm).
I wanted him to go higher rather than lower (so that the dope did not have to travel through the inflamed area).

But, I got the same result anyway. I had been trying to move up and down along the vein, which was easy on this vein.
The vein in my other arm is only visible in a relatively small place (to me at least) and I am more worried about that vein.

Hopefully, this one will come back ok.

This is definitely a lesson learned. My friends have been doing this a lot longer than me and haven't had problems like this yet, but I know it's inevitable.

We hear about people messing up their veins all the time, thinking that it won't be us. (At least I did. Especially this fast).

I will definitely be taking better care of them from here on out.
 
i never understood why people always heated there heroin, lol. MY 9 years using it i never once had to use flame, just water, stir, cotton, draw up...now when i had chunky heroin that was in small rocks, i would use heat to break it down faster, but other then that i never understood why
 
If you destroyed a vein after only IV'ing 10 times... you must have absolutely horrible technique borderline butchery.

Veins are very delicate and trust me, when they're all gone and it takes you 40 minutes to register, you'll be kicking yourself you didn't take the time to learn better technique in the beginning.
 
omg i have had so many times where i spent an hour trying to find a vein, and got so mad i just squirted the liquid in my mouth or just fucking pushed it all into my muscle or skin popped it, ooh it gets me irritated
 
I had something similar happen to my 'main pipeline' and it took 3 weeks or so to heal.
 
Bah... You probably didn't kill it. You probably went all the way through it. Give it a week without playing with it and try again in a slightly different position. Sometimes it takes more than a week. Mine always come back though sometimes I have to push through a mound of scar tissue. Did you get any hard lumps built up or anything? If so then those too go away, it takes a minute, but they do and I've found that just about the time those go away is just about the time the vein comes back.

Practice, practice, practice... When you draw back and get blood make damned sure you're in good and make sure you don't move the needle tip. If you do then, well, draw back again - don't just say screw it and punch it through. Also don't slam too hard, easy is the key.

That's my experience at least, your body may be different and I may be an alien.
 
My vein has been back in business for a few days now, and about three days ago successfully transported my dope to my brain.

The vein is definitely a bit trickier to hit now, and it has shifted slightly to the side. So, I need to get more comfortable injecting in it's new position.

Thank you to everybody that offered their advice.
 
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