Shooting dope and collapsed Veins

[methadonian]

To make a long story short I spent about 20 years shooting dope before I finally got cleaned up. One of the things that happened to me towards the end of my last run was that I had developed a blood clot in the crook of my left elbow along with a nice case of cellulitis further down on my left forearm that led to me being hospitalized and put on IV antibiotics for about 5/6 days. Doctor told me that I was playing with death had I decided to not show up at the ER when I did. Me, with my brilliant dope fiend mind decided that the dope I was getting at the time was so good and broke down so clean when I added water that I could simply overlook cooking it. I forgot that whenever you cook your dope your not only breaking it down but you are also somewhat sterilizing it at the same time.

Anyhow, fast forward 5 years and I am still clean albite a few chips here and there along the way but have developed a dependancy on methadone, (300 10 mg pills a month), that is'nt liable to stop anytime soon. When I used to shoot dope I always hit in the same spot everytime and was fortunate enough to always hit paydirt everytime. Made a lot of my junky freinds envious that I could get off wothout so little effort. The point of my little story here is that while at the doctors office today the nurse took my blood pressure in both my right as well as my left arm and got two very different readings depending on which arm she used. My left arm had been showing something like 140 over 100 which is high but my right arm would show something closer to normal 125 over 80 something something......go figure.

I had been wondering about this for the past few doctor visits when it dawned on me that a large vein in my left arm was probably collapsed. I mean all I got in the crook of that left arm is a big hole with scar tissue. I am right handed and never used to hit in my right arm as it was always somewhat awkward to try and do and besides I had ole faithful on the left that would never let me down. Nowdays if I try to hit there all I get is dust and it's sort of hit and miss anywhere else. Anyhow, I was curious to know if anyone else out there in opioland has ever had the same type problem with finding a decent reliable vein. Like you might have one good spot to hit and it's hell to try and find another spot that is reliable.
Am interested in any and all reply's concerning this topic.........later:cool:

[paups]

You know.. thats really interesting about the possible blood pressure reading being different in each arm.. Ive had a few wacky readings in the last year but never noticed which arm it was..

I have small feminine veins for the most part.. when I was living in SF I blew all of them out within 6mos and came home to NYC with an abscess the size of a golfball on the lower crook of my left elbow and a terrible case of cellulitis in my right upper arm including several small weeping open wounds that would leak tar from further down my arm when I would try and hit..ugh.

All of this cleared up pretty well within 1 year of ceasing to inject in that area (I switched to IM injections once I was back together with ECP)

Fast forward about 5 years and I was hospitalized twice this winter on a heavy load of IV antibiotics.. every time they had to put an IV in it was a huge ordeal to find a new vein in my arm or hand and when I was finally hooked up they had to turn it down to the slowest drip setting to keep it flowing and even then if I even moved slightly the alarm would go off and the drip would stop with an alert of obstructed flow.. like seriously every 15min. It took 4hours to take in one bag of vancomycin.

I probably should have just had a pic line put in..but I was so traumatized after the "awake procedure" I told them they would have to sedate me to put it in. (I was seriously freaked out.. fucking hate IVs now.. I know that sounds silly but they make me go into a panic literally..)

[Bricks & Stacks]

Me, with my brilliant dope fiend mind decided that the dope I was getting at the time was so good and broke down so clean when I added water that I could simply overlook cooking it. I forgot that whenever you cook your dope your not only breaking it down but you are also somewhat sterilizing it at the same time.

I def ain't no expert on the situation but I thought cookin dope only dissolves the cut more makin people think they're gettin more dope, when really the dope is water soluble so anything that needs heated to break down isn't dope? And I thought for it to sterilize at all the water has to be boiling for a few minutes not just heated up with a lighter to flash boil.

I might be wrong tho that's why I'm askin

[duck]

No B&S most bacteria is killed before the water even boils. I think its like 160 degrees to kill most bacteria.

[reddragon3668]

I am almost sure t hat different readings in both arms like that can be a sign of a heart condition. Did the doctor mention that or was it the nurse that did it and she just wrote down one reading without mentioning it to the doctor? It happening consistently like that is a reason for concern. Hopefully one of our health professionals will confirm or debunk what I'm saying.

[paups]

I def ain't no expert on the situation but I thought cookin dope only dissolves the cut more makin people think they're gettin more dope, when really the dope is water soluble so anything that needs heated to break down isn't dope? And I thought for it to sterilize at all the water has to be boiling for a few minutes not just heated up with a lighter to flash boil.

I might be wrong tho that's why I'm askin

I never heated ECP unless it had weird thick cut to it to thin it out. BTH it was pretty necessary to heat it as it was difficult to dissolve.
Sometimes it did feel "safer" to boil it a second but I always figured it would not be long enough to kill anything serious so I quickly stopped doing that unless absolutely nec. to thin the liquid enough to draw up (or when doing cotton washes.. I would add ALOT of water and then boil all of it down for like 20seconds..)

[ryan5892]

My right arm is fucked, my left arm is half fucked, I dont wanna move to femoral, but I damn sure can't have tracks all up my fucking neck.

I got one survivor on my right arm that is serving me well right now though.

The veins in my left arm go kinda like this, I know I'm in the vein but when I pull back there is no blood at all.