Opioids Vein reuse

[cay]

I IV about once a day right now and I have one particular vein which is easy to find and use, I haven't really been able to find any others I took a glance at the IV Megathread and it doesn't have anything on reuse. Is there a problem from reusing the same vein and once a day? I'd think the cell damage would have time to repair.

 

[8L4YN3]

For daily use ideally you want to have atleast a few veins to rotate, for example rotating 6 spots per month so they each have time to heal before you're back at the first one. I think you're most definitely going to be accumulating damage, although it may be possible for the vein to hold out with 31g needles and such. But this is just being lazy imo, if you respect your body you would rotate your spots. And spend more effort finding veins.

But yeah you can't just rely on one spot to get you by forever thats silly, your body is full of veins man, you need to put more effort into developing a good mental image of where all your veins lie. I dont even have real bludging veins and i can easily see atleast a dozen separate sites for injection on hands and arms.

Spend time finding other veins, and if you want to practice hitting it you dont have to shoot drugs, just use saline if you want to kinda inject without anything of value on the line.

 

[BrokedownPalace]

^Good post man. You covered it well.

If you only IV once per day, using the same vein is not HORRIBLE, but certainly not ideal. Try and move up and down that vein, though, if it really is the only one you can use. Start further away from your heart, and move closer with each injection.

Vitamin E cream is great for promoting healing. Make sure you use the smallest gauge needle you can find, ideally 31g.

There are a bunch of vein maps available on here, and using google you can find them as well. Just because you cannot see the veins bulging out, does not mean there are no usable veins. You should invest in a tourniquet and spend some time trying to find some other locations to use, because that vein will not last forever. What will you do then ?

 

[cay]

Thanks guys, I have a tourniquet but I can't find any on my right arm and I used to be able to find two on my left, but now only one pops out. There is ONE that pops out on my wrist on my right but I can get a pulse from it so I'm guessing it's an artery.

I'll play some more if they don't popup should I still stick and try to pull back? Also, if I pull back and nothing comes in is this bad? (Something I've noticed when I hit a vein is immediately a little blood shows up in the needle) also I'm using 28g as that's what they hand out at the needle exchange. It's not too bad is it?

 

[Captain.Heroin]

also I'm using 28g as that's what they hand out at the needle exchange. It's not too bad is it?

28G is considerably larger than 31G, I would see if you can acquire some new 31G needles through a mail order service or a pharmacy, etc.

 

[bubblefaith]

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I'll play some more if they don't popup should I still stick and try to pull back? Also, if I pull back and nothing comes in is this bad? (Something I've noticed when I hit a vein is immediately a little blood shows up in the needle) also I'm using 28g as that's what they hand out at the needle exchange. It's not too bad is it?

if you pull back and it doesnt register after blood has already shot into the barrel (b/c of the large gauge..) then you might have gone through it... just keep the plunger pulled back and withdraw the needle a bit. as far as using the same vein over and over again, if at all possible i would definitely suggest changing sites as frequently as possible.. but keep going down this path and you wont have much choice in where you fix. gl..

 

[mrflowers00]

you should use different spots on the vein to keep down track marks and it could eventually collapse your vein

 

[scottd420]

I've seen some pretty nasty looking collapsed median cubitals, let me tell you.