Injecting - Cocaine-related IV abcesses......Help ASAP please

[EyesOfTheWorld]

Monkey has a friend (note this is REALLY not about Monkey but his friend). This friend has been IV'ing cocaine fairly regularly for a few weeks and has developed rather severe under-skin abcesses. What should Monkey tell his friend (other than the obvious-stop banging coke)
Are the abcesses caused by impurities? Bad IV technique? Oversized needles? Or are they an unavoidable side effect of IV'ing cocaine? If so, what should he tell his friend as to how to get rid of them, or is his friend fucked?
Help ASAP from knowledgeable people appreciated.
Note: his friend uses only clean works right out of the package.

[BoxStar]

SWIY friend needs to go to a hospital emergency room as fast as possible and get a doctor to examine his arm and he must be honest about drug use; this is nothing to play around with, an untreated severe abscess can rapidly grow and even reach the bone which might cause septicemia and massive tissue destruction; any of these can result in amputation and even dead if left untreated, every hour that passes without treatment increases the risks of a bad outcome.

SWIM has seen IV users who have lost hands and/or arms for leaving an abscess untreated, some caused by relatively small abscesses that reached the bone although the exterior appearance might look like “nothing serious”.

The abscesses associated with IV drug use can be caused by variety of things; drugs are not sterile, if unsterile water is used to dissolve the substance it adds even more microorganisms, extravasating (or blowing the vein) such solution can easily create a very serious infection, however infection can also be caused by using everything sterile in a hospital setting since microorganisms are introduced into the body at the puncture wound.

[EyesOfTheWorld]

ok monkey will take her to the er tonight. thanks

[Ilsa]

swi-boxstar i absolutely right--get to a doc asap.

an abcess can be caused, most commonly, by bacteria, bt can also result from chronic inflammation caused by shooting coke, esp with harsh cut, that irritates the vein and surrounding tissue.

bacteria are commonly found in randomly tested samples of most street drugs; however, one bacterial strain that is warrants particular caution to IV users is MRSA (Methicillin Resistant Staph Aureus), which can be transferred by simple skin to skin or needle to skin contact. any open wound is fair game, as this strain is particularly adept at infecting human tissue, and, as the name indicates, is resistant to the penicillin family of antibiotics. ALWAYS swab the injuetion site with an alcohol pad, use a clean, sterile needle (taking care that it doesn't touch any srface except the sterilized area of skin it's meant to touch), and swab again with an alcohol pad after injecting.

[Benga]

agree with the above. Get medical attention straight away

[Fight Club]

Missed IV cocaine shots can cause lesions at the skin surface as well. This typically happens when a) the solution is a bit strong >1g/3ml water or saline, and b) the injection misses the vein and creates a subcutaneous bubble.

Because cocaine is a vasoconstrictor, the skin surrounding the bubble will die almost immediately, causing a lesion which takes a long time to heal and results in a dark scar that eventually turns white. Treated regularly with a triple antibiotic cream such as Neosporin, it will heal over in 3-4 weeks.

If your friend has a true abcess, characterized by a large hot red bump that is painful to the touch, and gets worse rather than better over 2-3 days, you should follow the advice above and seek medical help.

FC

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Answers the post expertly

[BoxStar]

Originally Posted by Fight Club

Missed IV cocaine shots can cause lesions at the skin surface as well. This typically happens when a) the solution is a bit strong >1g/3ml water or saline, and b) the injection misses the vein and creates a subcutaneous bubble.

Because cocaine is a vasoconstrictor, the skin surrounding the bubble will die almost immediately, causing a lesion which takes a long time to heal and results in a dark scar that eventually turns white. Treated regularly with a triple antibiotic cream such as Neosporin, it will heal over in 3-4 weeks.

If your friend has a true abcess, characterized by a large hot red bump that is painful to the touch, and gets worse rather than better over 2-3 days, you should follow the advice above and seek medical help.

FC

SWIM has experience with the ischemic lesions caused by extravasated cocaine; the more superficial the vein is the more the risk the lesions are most easily caused in hands, missing a vein and injecting enough cocaine right below the skin and/or between the layers of skin will cause the skin to detach by layers and die in minutes forming a blister full of fluid, the blister must be drained as the fluid contains high quantities of cocaine.

SWIM has a few of these; the holes in skin can be quite deep and infections can develop which is be very dangerous; its best to see a doctor and be honest; generally a topical antibiotic and a pro-healing cream are prescribed but prophylactic treatment with oral antibiotics is also given if the lesion is big and deep or there are other factors that could increase the risk for infection which a very serious matter, a bacterial infection in one of these can turn life-and/or-limb-threatening rather easily, the wound must be kept as sterile as possible.

In the wound within days a very thick and hard crust will grow inside the skin-hole sealing it around the living skin and then it will take from 3 to 6 weeks for new skin to fill the area and the (now far less thick) crust to recede and eventually fall off or disappear completely; under medical supervision the wound can be kept sealed with the proper bandages which will prevent crusting and allow more rapid skin growth but this also presents an even higher risk of infection if bandages are not changed at the correct times.

The new scar is for life as a certificate to prove that SWIY was once a IV-Cokehead, as a testament of what cocaine can do both outside and in the inside; SWIM has seen people with their hands, arms and feet covered in scars some of them huge from trying to hit the same vein several times and extravasating shots along 4-5 centimeters creating terrible wounds while immersed in a state of absolute psychosis.

For anyone about to slam coke for the first time, be 110% sure the needle is the vein, inject about 40% of the solution, register again, if still in the vein, keep going and do a final register when 90% is injected to make sure all the solution is going to the vein, small extravasations can be treated by applying constant pressure and heat to the area (microwave a towel for one minute and use it to apply pressure over the numb area) keep the heat for an hour and its likely that no lesion will appear for “small” extravasations, if anyone shoots all the solution at once into tissue applying heat might help reduce the size of the lesion, but its very likely that there will be one.

Reputation Comments on this post:

	good advice
	Good post and explaination of terms used in the post
	Great Advice