Vein care - a few questions

[John_Burrows]

Let's say a very close, personal friend of mine has started shooting dilaudid once a day.

Let's also say this friend is me!

Anyway, I only have one vein I can easily find and register with on the first try. So, I alternate days from the left to right arm, meaning I give my veins a 48 hour rest between shots.

Is that enough time to insure I'm not going to end up with a collapsed vein or some other problem?

A few points to consider - I'm very clean, I always use a fresh needle and apply a warm compress for a few minutes after every shot (I find it helps with healing, getting rid of bumps or mosquito bites, etc.

Also, the vein I use (which runs down the side of my inner, lower arm, basically from the thumb to halfway up my forearm) covers a good, 6 inch distance, so when I do go back to that vein 48 hours later, my shot is always at least a few inches away from the previous one.

Does that make a difference? Does not shooting In exactly the same spot give the vein a break, or does shooting in the same vein, regardless of location, but the same stresses on it?

Believe me, if I could find another vein, I would. Let's just assume for now that this is what I've got to work with and want to do my best to be safe.

Any and all opinions/suggestions/medical-biological insight will be rewarded with a cookie.

Thanks!

 

[John_Burrows]

Wow, no one has any advice for me? I know there are plenty of experienced Blue Lighters who can help me, please come out of hiding!

Tonight I clearly did something wrong... I inserted the needle, pulled back, saw blood and assumed I was good to go. I slowly began to inject and thought i saw the skin starting to swell, like I was missing the shot, so I stopped. The skin was fine, no swelling (sometimes the light plays tricks on you). To be sure I pulled back again and again saw blood, so I figured I had to be in a vein, so I continued to inject. About 75% done and was again sure I saw some swelling, so I figured better safe than sorry and aborted the injection.

I pulled the needle out. I felt the shot for sure (can't mistake that dilaudid rush!). But a few minutes later, I noticed severe swelling around the area I tried to inject (right around the inside of the wrist). I'd say the total surface area of swelling was te size of a golf ball, but the swell itself was not that huge, maybe 15% greater than what my wrist size should be.

No pain and no bruising, but the swell felt firm and a bit numb. Since it's impossible to keep a warm towel warm for very long, I just ran some warm tap water over my wrist for 5 mins, gave it a quick break and did another 5. It def made a difference and reduced the swelling by a good 30 or 40 %.

Right now its about an hour later and it's still swolen, very firm to the touch, but still no pain, bruising or redness.

Any ideas?

 

[burntserkits]

In response to your first post, sounds like you are doing things the right way. You can encounter problems injecting in the same site over and over, whether you alternate or not. It will cause scar tissue and can lead to clots later. There is a nice post on IVing in OD...

 

[classic.grg]

If the Vein runs down your arm, you want to start where the vein is closest to the Heart and move, away. Alternating is a good idea, along with the hot cloth. I only have 4 veins I can hit and so I do the same, so alternate your arms, and move down the vein away from the heart, also I would recommend 3 other things, getting sterile water from your local grocery store and also buy rubbing alcohol there, along with cotton balls. The sterile water for injecting, because you never know what type of bacteria is going to be in the sink water. and the rubbing alcohol and cotton balls are for cleaning the injection spot before and after injecting to kill all the microbes on your skin. If you have any other questions, I am pretty experienced in shooting everything and anything. If you have any other questions you can Private Message me. Do what i told you and make sure you get that stuff, also remember to always be safe.

 

[Flexistentialist]

Mix up with plenty of water. Using tiny amounts of water to mix up can make the solution more irritating to the lining of the vein. There's a myth that less water = better rush, but that's just bullshit.

 

[John_Burrows]

Thanks for the tips - if I didn't mention it, I do use an alcohol pad every time I shoot - I use it to rub my arm and to sterilize the spoon, the pill crusher and the "stick" I use to mix.

After applying the alcohol pad, I wipe everything down with fresh cotton balls.

And I use either bottled or filtered water, never straight tap water.

Flex, I do use the maximum amount of water. No matter how many mg of drug I'm shooting, I tend to fill the syringe to 80 or 90 units.

Classic, thanks for the tip about starting high and working my way down. But I still have the question, assuming i'm doing everything mentioned here properly, can I use just the two spots (with a 48 hour break for the vein) without damage?

Oh and by the way, it's now 6 hours since I got swelling from my missed shot and the wrist is just about back to normal, so I guess its not serious!

 

[Znegative]

if you just started you'll be fine. I've been shooting for about 3 years now, and only two veins have collapsed on me. I'm lucky too, because I have not always been the most hygenic I.V user. If you alternate between arms, use clean needles, etc... your veins should last you a long time. Eventually damage will beging to accumulate after a long time if you continue to use these veins, but I'm sure that way before that time would come, you'd be experienced enough to hit other veins.
I would practice trying to hit rolling veins with some sterile water. I used to only use two veins in my arms because I didn't know how to hit a rolling vein, but once I figured it out, I can now hit pretty much anything, except my feet and ankles, which I have trouble with. different veins require different angles and techniques, and needle sizes. The veins in your hands and wrist, are very close to the surface, so you would want to go in at as shallow of an angle as you can manage, as opposed to the ones further up your arm, where you'd want to be at a slightly steeper angle. I find that using 5/16 inch tips are easiest to hit those surface veins, and for the ones on your elbow, 1/2 inch are great. I like to make sure that the needle is all the way in when I register, that way, I don't have to worry about it slipping out or through the vein uppon injection, or while I manipulate the plunger.
sorry for the long post, hope this helps a bit!

 

[John_Burrows]

The only reason I haven't used other veins is I just can't find them. Trust me, my arms hide them well (even nurses sometimes have to make several attempts before they strike gold).

Other than the one running down my wrist/forearm, I can hit the ones on top of my hands, but was told I should avoid them.

But which is the lesser of two evils, hitting the same vein every 48 hours or adding my hands into the rotation?

Also, are there any warning signs of a collapsing vein or is it there, nice and healthy one day and gone the next?

What makes the vein collapse, simply constant use or some kind of accident?

If I'm as careful as I say and wait 48 hours between hits, will I be ok or is even that amout enough to insure that collapse is inevitable?

 

[mewithoutyou]

Always using a fresh needle is always a good idea even if you keep shooting in the same spot. My veins started to get really bad when I started not to care if my needle was new and used them over and over again. Also rotating should help them not to scare up escp. since you are using new pins all the time.

Just dont sart using old needles or keep going in the same vein everyday, then you will end up like me. My veins are so fucked that When I got an IV in NOV they had to do and Internal Jugglar( Yes internal, even my external Juggaular is fucked and scared really badly) the needle was like a foot long, and they have to number you before putting it in. And Then in April They had to do an internal subclavian whcih is one of the biggest vien you have, again with the huge needle.

If you miss some in a spot let that spot rest for a couple weeks.

 

[Captain.Heroin]

Is that enough time to insure I'm not going to end up with a collapsed vein or some other problem?

A few points to consider - I'm very clean, I always use a fresh needle and apply a warm compress for a few minutes after every shot (I find it helps with healing, getting rid of bumps or mosquito bites, etc.

I think collapsed veins and other vein problems occur more frequently in people who are shooting multiple times a day, but it's also probably more related to people who are more likely to pierce through both sides of the vein, miss shots frequently (i.e. compulsive IV cocaine users for instance), people who use impure/cut/unfiltered solutions, etc.

I think your technique has a big part in this, so if you are really careful when you shoot, and you make your shot most of the time, and are careful not to puncture through both sides, and use a decent sized gauge (27 to 31 is probably "ideal" for most people, anything bigger than that, save it for IMing or filtering).

One last point I'd like to make: a few things are good to take care of your veins, like using triple antibiotic ointment, muscular/cardiovascular exercise, and using a heat compress if you ever miss a shot.

Also, the vein I use (which runs down the side of my inner, lower arm, basically from the thumb to halfway up my forearm) covers a good, 6 inch distance, so when I do go back to that vein 48 hours later, my shot is always at least a few inches away from the previous one.

Does that make a difference? Does not shooting In exactly the same spot give the vein a break, or does shooting in the same vein, regardless of location, but the same stresses on it?

Believe me, if I could find another vein, I would. Let's just assume for now that this is what I've got to work with and want to do my best to be safe.

Any and all opinions/suggestions/medical-biological insight will be rewarded with a cookie.

Thanks!

Well since you are shooting less frequently than most people, I think you are doing fine. I wouldn't space it out that much, maybe just 3-5 millimitres at best (if you aren't using 31 gauges, give a proportionately bigger amount of room for the larger gauged needles, if you use them) - and you want to work closer to the heart (starting closer the extremities, and going closer to the heart with each additional shot).

Finding other good veins to use would be ideal BUT since you're only using once per day I can hardly see it becoming an issue for you (though it's not completely unlikely, problems can still happen). If you were shooting 10 times a day, you would probably want 5 to 10 good veins to use but for 1 shot per day, 1 vein is likely going to do just fine, especially if you have a good 6 inches to use.

You definitely want to only use a site (an injection site and its surrounding millimetre-or-two of area) once in a few days, so I think what you're doing is just fine.

Just pay attention to your veins, to make sure they aren't becoming smaller/pinched/bruised a lot/etc.

Take care and good luck!

 

[John_Burrows]

Hey Captain, thanks for the great reply, that's exactly the info I was looking for. It's good to know that if I'm only shooting once a day and taking proper care I shouldn't have to worry too much about the veins. I am doing all the things you recommended.

In the last two days i've had two missed shots from trying to find new injection points, but since it seems like my habbit is ok for the two veins that work best for me, I'll stop swelling up my arms in vein.

Get it? In vein?? Hahahahahaha.