Injecting - Vein health?

[m.swinehart81]

I just replied to a post about someone having trouble hitting their veins and it made me start wondering about swim's veins. Swim has been shooting dope on and off for almost 10 years now. For the last several months he has been IM'ing all shots because he can rarely find any veins. Swim has exhausted everything! Even swim's jugular veins are hard now. What swim is wondering is if any of you swimmers out there know of anything that will help restore health to the veins? If there is nothing he wants to know if they will eventually come back or if he is doomed to living a life with no veins. What concerns him most is if he were to get into an accident or something and the emt's couldnt find a vein. I know all about the "central line" and I dont want swim to have to go through something like that.
Any info would be welcomed with open arms!!

[bmk]

swims girl worked in a hospital and told swim that if they get a junkie that they need a vein aparently they cut and fold the skin back to make them visable

[m.swinehart81]

That is absolutely insane! They literally would peel the skin back? That seems a little excessive. Swim thinks he would rather have the central line put in than have them do some crazy shit like that...
Swim has been trying to do some research on his original question but he cant find anything other than techniques to get them to pop out so one can actually inject. He isnt looking for that, he actually wants to find a way to restore health to them in the long run. Not just some quick way to get them to pop back out... Maybe there are some people in the addiction/recovery forum that would have some more insight on this subject...

[xxdan123xx]

Swim was wondering and though this would be the thread to ask... He is too going through complete loss of veins. But in the mornings his hands are often completely numb.. This scaares swim and he wonders if it could be related. He has back problems too maybe its from that. Anyone elses pet experience this before?

[mickey_bee]

Unfortunately, once a vein has collapsed, it will never come back.
Many junkies will tell you this isn't true and that the vein will return if it is left for a long time. This is due to 2 things;
Sometimes veins become very hard to shoot, and see, even before they have collapsed, (leading to the incorrect conclusion that they have), if left completely alone, these veins will sometimes return to good health.

When a vein collapses, much smaller veins are utilised by the body to send blood back to the heart. These smaller veins will expand, and often become visible, under the new pressure being exerted following other vein's collapse.
However, these are still small, weak veins, and can take considerably less punishment than originally visible veins.
When they too are destroyed, even smaller and deeper veins carry the load, and circulation becomes poor.


Basically, when a vein is gone, it is gone for good. If 'new' veins appear, don't take them for granted, as they will be much weaker than those that preceeded them.

All the ageing junkies swim knows shoot in their femoral. He hasn't come across any that can't shoot their, but many who have stopped due to the dangers.
Swim also knows more than one person who have had legs amputated through this route of IV, and many, many more who have been hospitalised.

mickey_bee added 3 Minutes and 4 Seconds later...

Originally Posted by xxdan123xx

Swim was wondering and though this would be the thread to ask... He is too going through complete loss of veins. But in the mornings his hands are often completely numb.. This scaares swim and he wonders if it could be related. He has back problems too maybe its from that. Anyone elses pet experience this before?

Don't want to scare you, but it almost certainly will be because of the loss of veins. Swim too experiences this, and doesn't know a single junkie who doesn't have poor circulation.
Your veins are what pump blood around your body. If you destroy them, then less and less blood circulates, leading to numbness, and even more serious problems.

Don't mean to be a killjoy or anything, but it is important to know the truth, hey swim's fucked too!

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[Esmerelda]

Originally Posted by xxdan123xx

Swim was wondering and though this would be the thread to ask... He is too going through complete loss of veins. But in the mornings his hands are often completely numb.. This scaares swim and he wonders if it could be related. He has back problems too maybe its from that. Anyone elses pet experience this before?

The most common cause of this is something called Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, where the nerves and/or blood vessels supplying the arm are contricted, often around the neck. If Swiy has back problems this is even more likely to be the cause.

Swie would advise seeing a doctor who will probably recommend physio if he agrees with the diagnosis (Swiy might need some tests). If Swiy doesn't see a doctor immediately he could look online for some neck exercises and do these twice a day. If that helps then it's almost definitely TOS.

Damaged veins could possibly be causing or contributing to the problem, but TOC is a seperate issue. Swie used to get it and treated herself with exercises. She had it before she ever started shooting so it was unrelated. Everyone is different though - best to get a diagnosis from a doctor.

[mickey_bee]

Swim would be very interested to meet someone who was going through a complete loss of veins, who didn't wake up with numb extremities in the morning. It might be added to by swiy's back, but even without that swiy would have circulation problems if he/she had used up most of his/her obvious veins.

[Esmerelda]

Originally Posted by mickey_bee

Swim would be very interested to meet someone who was going through a complete loss of veins, who didn't wake up with numb extremities in the morning. It might be added to by swiy's back, but even without that swiy would have circulation problems if he/she had used up most of his/her obvious veins.

mikey_bee - you're probably right. But TOC is also rediculously common, and seeing as it's the more treatable of the two conditions its worth seeing if exercises help.

[dyingtomorrow]

SWIM too wakes up with his hands almost completely numb in the morning. SWIM even took off 10 weeks and weight lifted very hard 5 times a week for 8 of them - still got the numbness, and despite building a lot of muscle none of his veins came back.

SWIM just remembered something he's been trying a long time to remember:

L-Arginine

When SWIM was in his dope shooting heyday and burning through veins, he started taking this supplement every day. He feels like he noticed his veins were regenerating very quickly, and was able to reach a homeostasis of working injectable veins with the supplement and rotation.

[xxdan123xx]

It is probably due to the shooting but swim does see adoctor for his back problems and has nerve damage in his neck so the doctors think it is because of this.. They dont know he is A heroin addict and he keeps it that way... never want them to write down drug seeker or swiy will never see another bottle of oc again.