Help with veins

[Antinode]

Hey, SWIM has recently started shooting, and has had a bit of trouble finding veins. SWIM's friend used to be able to hit him with no trouble at all, but SWIM doesn't see this person anymore, and so now has to do it himself. SWIM isn't very defined, and thus has a decent amount of trouble locating veins - he was using his hand/wrist at first but was told the wrist is a bad place so stopped that = also tried the foot a few times but finds trouble with accuracy and doesn't like it as it's not as clean. The arm area is ideal, but it often takes a number of tries to locate the vein, which obviously isn't good. SWIM was looking for any methods or pointers of making ones veins more noticeable, any help?

[Solinari]

The back of the hand is MUCH better than using the foot which can really hurt and seems a bit riskier. The wrist is a bit dodgy, there are arteries there as well as nerves and tendons, so try and avoid the wrist.

Other than that there isn't much one can do about it if the veins aren't very prominent to begin with. A hot bath or shower may help a little but it isn't really practical every time (depending on frequency of use).

Consider forgetting about injecting, it's possible one will end up missing more often than not and cause problems with infection and damaging what veins are there.

[Solinari]

How did the vein burst exactly, was it a sudden thing and is the vein visible? The only way a vein could burst is if a tourniquet wasn't released prior to injection which should always be done, or if the plunger was pushed too fast, which should also be avoided. I am not sure what is meant by burst, if it's truly burst then i doubt it will heal, or at least will never be the same again. Probably best to keep an eye on it and make sure it doesn't get infected, if it doesn't appear to be healing (and damage is apparent) then get it checked out.

Using an alcohol swab is a good idea but i wouldn't say it's vital or without it an infection is inevitable, in fact i imagine infection caused solely by not using a swab is unlikely and rare, but i suppose if overall hygiene was poor with repeated injections then a problem might develop.

The risk of hitting an artery on the forearm is fairly low unless the needle is going in deep or used around the wrist area. Hitting an artery should be apparent by the colour of the blood that is drawn in to the syringe, sometimes forced in by the pressure alone, if it is bright red then it's probably an artery and it's better to assume it is an artery than to push the plunger. I read a phrase here (can't think what else to call it), 'if it's pink stop and think, if it's (dark) red go ahead'. As far as i know my fiend has never hit an artery before so he hasn't actually seen the colour of the blood but he has seen it on TV.

After editing this i decided to see if i could find it through Google, the best i could find was this..

Arterial Blood...


Venous blood...


To tell you the truth, i found these on a fake blood website but i imagine it is very realistic and represents real blood quite well.

[pirate24]

Originally Posted by Solinari

How did the vein burst exactly, was it a sudden thing and is the vein visible? The only way a vein could burst is if a tourniquet wasn't released prior to injection which should always be done, or if the plunger was pushed too fast, which should also be avoided. I am not sure what is meant by burst, if it's truly burst then i doubt it will heal, or at least will never be the same again. Probably best to keep an eye on it and make sure it doesn't get infected, if it doesn't appear to be healing (and damage is apparent) then get it checked out.

SWIM stupidly forgot to loosen the tourniquet before injecting so the vein expanded. After the injection, the area turned red, like the color of sunburn, which he's told indicates a blood spill from the vein. Not to worry though, today the red color has practically disappeared and he can see the vein again, when he pumps his arm it sticks out with all the others. Crisis averted.

[Apprentice]

Apart from all the good advice above i cant really add much.SWIM used to inject in legs,arms and hands but never groin or neck.In the hand SWIM used to always find a prominent vein that stretches down from just below the knuckle of the thumb to the wrist but like stated there are arteries in many areas so go with the motto " if the bloods RED then go ahead but if its PINK then stop and think" cos SWIM has hit an artery before(more than once in the past) and nearly had his thumb and finger amputated but luckily after 3 days of a warfirin(blood thining meds) drip with strong anti biotics and a morphine drip...(thats how bad the pain was cos you know hospitals dont like giving users any more opiates than they need to,lol) the hospital were able to un clot SWIMs hand which was lucky as the doctor says one more day without unclotting the hand and they would have HAD to amputated a few digits so CAREFUL,ALWAYS CAREFUL FRIEND.

SWIM's hand was black as if it was dead which was basically where the artery had clogged and cut of the blood supply to the thumb and finger so be careful.

The local addiction teams used to give SWIM out a kinda map of the body with places that are safer to inject than others and places where you have most arteries.There are veins in the ankle and foot that can be easily gotten SWIM says,BUT if you pop any of it your gonna suffer for a few days for sure as these are tender parts of the body.The kneee actually has some sufficient veins on it if you take a bath and have a look according to SWIM.

SWIM says that if you aint already exhausted the veins in your arms then there is no reason you shouldnt be able to get your 'main liners' that run from mid arm downwards,just go easy on citric if you want these veins to be able to be used time and time again.SWIM stopped injecting purely due to the fact that SWIM couldnt get a vein no more and had a bad experience with hitting the femural aretry in the groin area which scared SWIM away from EVER going there again!BE SAFE!!!!

An alternative to hitting is snorting but this is just as dangerous says SWIM,you need to know your limits before attempting this as SWIM's best mate died on his 1st attempt doing this sadly.TBH sooner or later everyone SWIM says will struggle to find a vein to hit,it dont help matters when you are clucking and in a rush either,SWIM says take your time,have a warm bath and sit under a bright light with a tournequet/belt and pump your arm till you see a decent vein...MAKE SURE IT DOESNT HAVE A PULSE THOUGH!!!

Please be careful,SWIM has lost 13 friends to injecting and SWIM is only 29yrs young!If you are able to enjoy the buzz from smoking it SWIM says then do so,injecting for a lot of ppl is neccessary cos smoking it doesnt hold them over till their next fix so it aint a matter of choice for a lot of ppl,its a matter of neccessity.Like SWIM says...BE SAFE.I will see if SWIM still has the "map2 that the NHS advise ppl on where to inject and where not to inject.One thing SWIM says is that the arm veins will far outlast most other veins(excluding groin/neck) as ones in the leg are easily blown due to too much citric acid or pushing the hit in too fast.SAFENESS ALWAYS!Cheers

Reputation Comments on this post:

Very helpful information about finding a vein and which ones are good to IV and which ones are not

[Apprentice]

Originally Posted by betsym

Put warm or hot compresses on the arm. This makes veins stick out and so does tapping the arm over the veins. Stay away from injecting in foot or leg as these are areas where blot clots are most likely to form and this can cause MAJOR problems. The groin area is a big no-no because of the femoral artery and so is the neck. Repeatedly injecting, in a pin-cushion fashion, can cause veins to harden and feel like "ropes" going down the arm. They can stay that way for several weeks and can be real noticeable to say the least. Tying off helps some but doesn't always do the trick. Injecting is a lot of trouble and one really has to know what they are doing or risk major complications every time they do it.Swim gave it up in favor of trying to help others be smarter than she was. She just didn't find the risk to be worth it.

GREAT ADVICE/POST^^^^SWIM is a very smart person then in my opinion. I too have a friend of a friend(FOF) who gave up the Heroin for those very same reasons.FOF tells me that Heroin is his favourite all time drug for the buzz it gives you... but FOF weighed up the pro's & con's of the drug and decided the con's far outweighed the pro's....

Heres just a few reasons why SWIM/FOF gave up injecting and using Heroin>>>>

#1:SWIM/FOF Had NO veins left that were reliable enough to use regularly.Most had hardened or simply dissapeared leaving little blood vessel type veins in place of the main liner type veins he once had to use I.V..(Some veins in time repair themselves,others just vanish forever) Even the ones that reappear after considerable time are unreliable meaning that they easily 'pop' or collapse again seing as they have suffered years of abuse in a nutshell..ie. scar tissue on the veins or veins that feel hard,thrombosis can be a factor in a lot of cases,especially when injecting in the legs and feet areas.Do a little research on THROMBOSIS and you'll see what SWIM/FOF means.

#2:SWIM/FOF realised that the money he was spending on Heroin weekly was enough to pay a mortgage on a house aswell as finance payments on a car and the insurance,tax,petrol,etc thats needed to run it weekly/monthly,etc. (Dont EVER try to count up the cash you have spent on H as it will only depress you deeply according to FOF.) This is only one example of what SWIM/FOF started spending his Heroin money on.FOF never stole to keep his habit going(well not for the last several years of his Heroin useage),he admits that he made money through other means that at the time were acceptable to him ,basically SWIM/FOF sold some recreational substances to fund his 'habit' but that brings with it a whole plethera of problems in itself which is a whole other thread topic IMO...

#3: SWIM/FOF realised that his family and TRUE friends(NOT the heroin 'aquaintances' whom he THOUGHT were friends!) were all distancing themselves from him and he had lost a lot of his respect amongst family and friends from the streets where he grew up and went to school with.Basically FOF one day became acutely aware of the fact that none of his childhood and teenage schoool friends,etc hung around with him anymore,it had suddenly dawned on SWIM/FOF that he was now surrounded by a bunch of ppl whom he THOUGHT were friends but truth be told they were only drug aquaintances,almost parasitical in the way they were always there when FOF was loaded with cash and drugs but when he was on his arse and clucking they were no where to be seen so the penny dropped for SWIM/FOF...BIG TIME!

SWIM/FOF now has the full trust and respect regained from both family and friends and now gets invited to family occassions once more..(one year @ xmas time ,FOF 'gouched' out during xmas dinner and eneded up with his face in the gravy in front of all his family!).. and also now gets invited to nights out with REAL friends who see the difference in SWIM/FOF and support him.The phoney 'friends' from the drug years now think FOF/SWIM thinks hes is somehow 'better' than them but not so,this aint the case,SWIM/FOF merely had/has to avoid old Heroin pals cos they would happily encourage SWIM/FOF to relapse.Plus FOF started going to weekly drug counselling sessions and was put on medication to substitute H(methadone then subutex then suboxin) and realised that to break free from the bonds of heroin you HAVE to break the 'circle' of ppl you hang with most times aswell as break the 'routine',get busy go to the gym,walk your dog,etc...ANYTHING TO GET OUT OF THE OLD ROUTINE!Its the hardest thing FOF ever did but now FOF is happily engaged with a 7month old boy and has been 'clean' for a few years now,he now goes to college hoping to one day become a drug counsellor to help others who are going through what he suffered back in the day.Cheers

Reputation Comments on this post:

Brilliant post! Well argued, well written and great harm-reduction

[tomazco]

The danger of an amateur making holes in delicate bodily transport systems aside, remember that everything in your blood is carefully monitored by kidneys and liver, and ideally all internal conditions kept optimum - blood is meant only to be base substances i.e. dissolved oxygen and bodily cells.

Injecting it, while i'm sure its way better, remember that you are putting unfiltered, cut crap like godknowswhat inside your viens along with the heroin, nad veins are only meant to be filled with "pure" blood and chemicals. Even through occaisional use injecting (if bad quality) can cause illness, ulcers and blockage.
Snorting gives your body a chance to filter some of the impurities out and stop them from entring the blood, so its only the H which is all you want anyways.

[pirate24]

Recently SWIM's cat injected some heroin into a vein on the back of his hand and it burst, how long does this usually take to heal? He also injected one time forgetting to first swab the injection site, he did so right after the injection, should he be worried? Also, what's the risk of hitting an artery if you just inject around the forearm?

Sorry for all the questions .