HELP!!! What did I DO??

[erica]

First off, I used the search engine, couldn't find anything - I'm sure there are threads but I just couldn't find any, and I'm freaking out right now after doing a bit of research.

So I IV'd into a vein (or so I thought) on the top of my hand. However, it started to form a small bubble and I had a pinch of pain, so I stopped, moved the needle and finished the shot. It didn't hurt as I was finishing it off.

But when I pulled out the needle the top of my hand started to turn white and started to swell. Now the entire top of my hand is completely numb and I can't see ANY of the veins. I marked off the entire top of my hand to see if the numbness and swelling is getting bigger or if it's subsiding....it's doing neither. I'm freaking out because I was reading about hitting a nerve, and how I could lose my hand.

Please help! What did I do? What should I do now?? Ahhh

[JunkBombJamie]

I have had something like this happen to me before. I dont think ur in any danger, tho it does look and feel very bad I know. I think it has something to do with histamines or something, some sort of reaction. I am sorry I really dont know a whole lot about what is happening. I just know that the few times it has happened to me that it went away afetr a little while, and it did not cause any damage to my body. When it happened to me my whole hand was swollen and kinda stiff. Hopefully you will be alright. I think you will be.

[opiALOVE]

happens to me all the time, i chalk it up as a miss, nothin bad ever happened to me. i take benadryl when i get a poofy white patch

[longduckdong]

Yeah, it used to happen to me all the time when I was banging coke. And it was always with shots in the hand.

[Poppylvr]

First off, I used the search engine, couldn't find anything - I'm sure there are threads but I just couldn't find any, and I'm freaking out right now after doing a bit of research.

So I IV'd into a vein (or so I thought) on the top of my hand. However, it started to form a small bubble and I had a pinch of pain, so I stopped, moved the needle and finished the shot. It didn't hurt as I was finishing it off.

But when I pulled out the needle the top of my hand started to turn white and started to swell. Now the entire top of my hand is completely numb and I can't see ANY of the veins. I marked off the entire top of my hand to see if the numbness and swelling is getting bigger or if it's subsiding....it's doing neither. I'm freaking out because I was reading about hitting a nerve, and how I could lose my hand.

Please help! What did I do? What should I do now?? Ahhh
Erica, if you shot up an opiate, what likely happened is that the shot leaked out through the vein wall (like the needle went all the way through. The swelling & whiteness are mostly likely a normal histamine reaction that happens when we get an opiate into our subcutaneous tissues.
If you can feel and wiggle your fingers, I'm almost vertain that's what happened.
If you hit a nerve with a shot it woukd be EXCRUCIATING pain and it would affect your ability to move your fingers.
Warm (not hot) packe the area to improve the blood flow so that the drug can get absorbed out of your sub Q tissue. you should be fine in a couple of hours.
As alwyas, if things get very different you may have to go to the ER.
I am leaving in 5 minutes for work so if you have a ? ask away quickly.

[Mayo]

Just sounds like some of the shot got out of the vein.

You can put a antihistamine on it like others said, but it
should get better within an hour to a day or so.

Keep an eye on it just in case, if it turns red and
starts to hurt, it may be going in the wrong direction.

[dieselbaby]

If your hand swelled up you most likely just missed part of the shot, you'll be OK. Last time it happened to me my hand swelled up pretty badly and it was out of commission in terms of shooting anything into it for like 3 days. Definitely don't try to shoot anything there again.

http://anatomyatlases.org/firstaid/images/injectionC.jpg

I bet you shot in the Dorsal vein by your on the top of your hand aligned with your ring finger, right? Personally, I think that spot sucks ass, and it's very easy to miss or slip out there, even if you have great technique and super steady hands (which luckily I do). I recommend the cephalic vein pictured above, especially in the spot about 1/2 inch down from your bottom thumb knuckle and alongside the point where your hand ends and your wrist begins. It's a great vein for me and pumps up real nice with a tourniquet, and I can hit the spot by my thumb without one.

[erica]

Thank you SO much everyone. The swelling/numbness hasn't begun to go away yet (hopefully it will, I still havee no feeling even in the skin between my fingers), but your responses have helped me to calm down a bit.

Poppylvr - thank you, the first thing I did was run warm water over it to try to get circulation going again. I'll put a warm compress on it and see if that helps, too.

The white "patches" went away pretty rapidly, however, my wrist is starting to hurt BAD. I can't bend it or even touch it...typing hurts. According to the picture (thank you dieselbaby!), I did in fact hit a Dorsal vein...However, in my left hand, the veins are a bit different than that picture - the vein I hit is in the same location as the Cephalic vein in the picture. I know it was a dorsal vein I hit, though, because it connects to the network of veins going over the top of my wrist (as opposed to the cephalic system, running along the thumb/underside). I've used my hand before, but never had this happen! I feel like such an idiot.

Any ideas on why my wrist is hurting now? That seems odd to me...unless the numbness is subsiding and I'm just starting to feel the pain that will eventually encompass my whole hand....?

[edhorfin]

Sometimes it just hurts like a bitch. It DOES go away though....Hands are sensitive, lots of nerve endings. Wrists make much better targets. THat cephalic vein lasts a long time. I used pretty much the same 3 or 4 inch area on my wrist - forearm for 2 years. Its scarred pretty bad, but the vein still flows. THe veins in my hands "go flat" real quick, even in the hospital with IV catheters, they have to change sites. The surrounding tissue just cant handle the insult and the vein just lays down.

Your hand should be back to pretty much normal inside 24 hours.