Femoral Vein Worries

[Oakleyskier]

dude it isnt such shit out there? what do you mean? i've had lots o banging dope in cali? i will admit, Salt Lake City, DEFINATELY had better tar on a whole, but thats a pretty generalized statement?

[blackwrx]

Like it was said, if you insist on shooting you should think about moving somewhere that has powder available. If you can't move at least take a few months off shooting that nasty shit and smoke it for a bit.

Might be a little more expensive to smoke but it is cheaper than living in a wheelchair the rest of your life or possibly death.

[Chipper]

Tar. Femoral. *shudders*. Fuck that (with respect, to those that do it). I would rather withdraw.

I'm saving what's left of my veins for something decent. I can wait.

[Citrus]

Originally Posted by Chipper

Tar. Femoral. *shudders*. Fuck that (with respect, to those that do it). I would rather withdraw.

I'm saving what's left of my veins for something decent. I can wait.

Great fucking post, one of the truest quotes I've ever had the pleasure of reading off my computer screen. Everyone should heed this advice.

[Dan Steely]

Originally Posted by China white

Ben from the documentary if anyone saw it was using has femoral and had some serious problems going on



I didnt read through the whole thread but what does the size of the barrel have to do with hitting a vein???

also...what caused your friend to have a stroke directly from hitting that particular vein? wheelchair ? cane? did they miss or something?

It's not the vein it's all the crap you are putting in your circulatory system.

Tar and pills are horrible to shoot w/o filtering.

anything you inject should be filtered a lot. Just pushing or sucking through cotton is better than nothing but that doesn't get all the tiny things that can cause blood clots.

filters are cheap and effective. here's a site with a lot of options. Some less than $10

http://www.smallparts.com/b/31808201..._rd_s=center-1

[Thebane]

There's chem info all over the internet on how to purify heroin. I don't think it takes any chem knowledge/training, just some time and easily obtained supplies. I don't know how feasible this is, since I've never used H. But if you only have you femoral veins left and are looking at death or being maimed and can't stop shooting, I'd sure as hell look into it.

Maybe someone here has 1st hand experience.

[nick]

Originally Posted by Thebane

There's chem info all over the internet on how to purify heroin. I don't think it takes any chem knowledge/training, just some time and easily obtained supplies. I don't know how feasible this is, since I've never used H. But if you only have you femoral veins left and are looking at death or being maimed and can't stop shooting, I'd sure as hell look into it.

Maybe someone here has 1st hand experience.

Chopstix has a thread on cleaning up tar.

[farmpkm]

Originally Posted by nick

http://www.harmreduction.org/downloa...ting_final.pdf

Wow. If this isn't enough to scare you away from shooting the femoral then... well, I don't know....

I'm sincerely sorry man, I don't know what I would do if I were in your position. It's not worth dying over... but that's easier said than done, of course.

[OverDriven]

Yes you can burn that vein out just like any other. You'll likely run into other complications before that happens, as people who shoot into the femoral don't typically last too long. I think that when it gets to this point, it's time to make a very real decision. Either quit or let the drug kill you. Some people feel that heroin is worth dying for, and if that's your choice then I can respect that as your personal choice. But at this point I believe it would be unwise to go on thinking that you won't suffer some very real consequences from this. It WILL happen, and probably sooner than later. If you are interested in living a long life, then my suggestion would be to quit for a while and maybe get on methadone or some other maintenance program. Don't shoot it, and let your veins heal. If you decide to get back in the game, move somewhere that you can get powder at the very least. If you don't choose to do that, then ride it for all it's worth till the end.

[RaZeR]

Ouch! I don't normally like putting myself out there like that but looking at it now maybe it was a subconcious cry for help. As far as being a "crash and burn junkie" I'm actually very high functioning and healthy, I've just been in the game a long time and this is what happens to a lot of old school users in my neck of the woods. But hey if I made you feel superior or good about yourself that's cool. Thank you to those who posted their sincere concerns and advice, I've actually tried the purification thing and found it to be more trouble than it's worth. The health problems I've seen usually come from blood clots so I appreciate the aspirin idea it definately couldn't hurt, but I'm feeling your guy's advice and info and think it might be time to start thinking of alternatives. Thanks to those who genuinely seem to care sometimes you know something but still it helps to hear it from others. Thanks

[Flowergirl]

I don't think anyone was needing your post to feel better about themselves. No one meant any ill will. They just see you're headed down a dangerous road.

I've actually tried the purification thing and found it to be more trouble than it's worth.

You've seen what happens in a worst case scenario and you know it is likely to happen to you, but cleaning that shit up is more trouble that it's worth? It's worth your life, isn't it?

Something to think about with aspirin therapy, prescription blood thinners like warfarin, or an antiplatelet aggregation like Plavix: Should you ever bleed out for whatever reason, which isn't unlikely when you're poking around near the femoral artery, the thinner your blood, the more you're going to bleed. Gushing blood.

I know nothing about iv drug use at all, by the way.

[Dan Steely]

Originally Posted by RaZeR

Ouch! I don't normally like putting myself out there like that but looking at it now maybe it was a subconcious cry for help. As far as being a "crash and burn junkie" I'm actually very high functioning and healthy, I've just been in the game a long time and this is what happens to a lot of old school users in my neck of the woods. But hey if I made you feel superior or good about yourself that's cool. Thank you to those who posted their sincere concerns and advice, I've actually tried the purification thing and found it to be more trouble than it's worth. The health problems I've seen usually come from blood clots so I appreciate the aspirin idea it definately couldn't hurt, but I'm feeling your guy's advice and info and think it might be time to start thinking of alternatives. Thanks to those who genuinely seem to care sometimes you know something but still it helps to hear it from others. Thanks

Try not to take it so personally. It's just the internut ya/know? This is a harm reduction board so posts like yours generate a lot of advice giving. Not just to you but also to anyone who might read the thread. It's a matter of perspective too. To me the idea of bangin tar is hard to fathom but then again I don't know what it's like out there. It sucks you guys can't get any powder. I used to be jealous cause I wanted to smoke and you really can't smoke the powder. Take care of yourself though man. I know filtering is a pita but not doing so is what leads to the clots. Clots and strokin out scares the shit out of me. Reading your post really brought that danger to light too. Best wishes bro.

[at&t]

Yep... dude... No one was condescending to you... (except MAYBE one, and I don't think that he was at all either...)

Its just that... The Femoral is a quite popular topic of discussion around here, and... the consensus is that one is going to be headed for Bad Trouble as soon as they start regularly hitting it....

But yeah... never mind the consensus of US, ask some Doctors/Nurses/Health-Professionals or... better yet, ask a surgeon about some of the amputations he has had to perform.....

Anyway.. Please don't take all this the wrong way, man... You know... personally, am certainly not one to talk, or to "feel better than" anyone-- and especially so, seeing as how I'm only just now recovering from an embarrassing, lengthy, and expensive case of blood poisoning caused by Continually (due to lack of veins) Muscling Tar (d'oh! )

We have a couple people here who are regular Femoral Injectors.... They get a fair amount of "dude, thats fucked up," or "Man, you really oughta stop doing that," or "that sucks that you're out of veins," etc--
BUT never a sermon of "I'm better than you," or "You need to stop heroin or you will die" (btw, That guy, overdriven-- I'm pretty sure he just meant "You should probably stop hitting the femoral, if you don't want dvt/strokes/amputation/'misc-fucked-up-femoral-iv-consequences/etc," (and in this, we must all admit that he definitely has a point...) as opposed to meaning something like "you must stop doing Heroin altogether. I'm better than you...")

Anyway... its not a matter of anyone being better than anyone else, or "feeling better about themselves" or whatever... its just that... As you obviously know, Femoral injecting REALLY IS a fast shortcut to bad things happening.

So.. as for 'tips,' I don't suppose that most of us have any, other than the obvious "don't hit the artery... that might be bad. (as in Amputation Bad.) or "don't do it, man..." or etc... I've certainly never tried it... <shrugs>

Wow... sorry for the way-too-long post! -- So, ok... Just three more things, real quick...

#1. Dan Steely (from yokohama) had a Very good point. --
SOME of the things said were addressed Both to You, AND to somebody having trouble finding veins and randomly searching on google....
> "Not just to you but also to anyone who might read the thread."

and #2. You have a good clear way of expressing yourself. You sound... you know.. "mature and responsible" (two somewhat "condescending" words in and of themselves, but I'm sure you know what I mean...) You sound mature and responsible enough to make your own choices/etc-- which is NOT something that can be said of all people on quote-unquote "internet message boards.."
So, yeah, what I'm saying is that I dig your way of speaking-- BUT, I wasn't entirely clear on whether or not you felt that folks were kind of 'talking down to you' or whatever. If I have misinterpreted you, then, well, do me a favour and please accept my apologies...!

and #3. Welcome to the board man... I guess I'm kind of a 'noob' too........ but... shrugs... I only found it strange when folks who joined in Nov 2009 were joining in to welcome other "class of Nov 2009" people, and posting things like "welcome to our family! I hope you enjoy our site!" rolls eyes at self. again.. I guess I shouldn't be talking...

but.. anyway... have a good weekend y'all... later, at&t

[RaZeR]

Yeah I did get a little butt hurt. I may get in trouble for saying this but I think a lot of heroin users can be oversensetive. Feeling things more deeply can lead to wanting to numb out, but living this lifestyle you also learn to have a thick skin. Anyways you guys' comments actually made me take a look at myself and consider some of the dangers that up until now I was just kinda ignoring or pushing to the back of my head. I can't say for sure that I'll never go that route again but I definately am not going to continue at the rate I was going. I'm not currently a daily user so I have the luxury of being able to step back and take a break and evaluate things. It's sad the damage I've already done to myself. Going to a Dr. who's tring to draw blood or put in an IV is a near impossible nightmare. I seemed to have avoided a lot of the other pitfalls so I think I just was getting overconfident. The rush is nice but it's definately not worth ending up like my friends. So uh how about the armpit?

[Dan Steely]

Dick vein? not a place you wanna miss eh? yikes!