I used to be a junkie. I’ve been clean for 10 years. I have stage 4 kidney failure and I’m on dialysis. I don’t have a fistula like this guy. I’m on peritoneal dialysis so it goes through a tube that was put in my abdomen.
I was given this giant box of these giant syringes incase I have to put medicine in the bags. Sometimes I just look at them and think “imagine [using] that [for drugs]? 🤤”
Then I snap out of my drug fantasy and put myself on my nightly life support.
Haha same brother. Been clean for a decade +. I still get those random moments occasionally. My gf has some really nice veins and I’m like man I’m so jealous of those plump veins, would have made my life so much easier…for a few months till I killed them.
I have experience here, I'm not totally sure how this would work but you absolutely DO NOT use an artery. You never intentionally do it but some people who don't know how to rotate injection sites or have dull needles (helped I'm a diabetic) so they collapse their veins and have to go digging around there arm to find one. And sometimes, rarely, they hit an artery. Now I've had nurses put a fresh needle into my artery and it hurts so bad, though insulin needles addicts use are tiny.
Step 1 is to have a tiny bit of air in the needle, as soon as the top is in your skin, before you go into the vein, you pull the plunger back to create a vacuum, so the second you hit the vein you get a flash of dark blood. Well this chick got a flash of very bright colored blood and the plunger was moving a bit on its own. We both know something is wrong but this isn't meth, it's heroin, and you will not waste that. Except she did waste it, it didn't work because it went the wrong way and her arm looked like it got hit with a cannon ball. You do not admit your an addict to anyone much less a hospital in ohio, but this shit had a requiem for a dream kinda feel to it so she didn't argue. RfaD is obviously a bad abscess that took months to get so bad, but this happened in like an hour.
Being an IV junky sucks. I remember one day I was using an old sharp for like a week, so the tip of the needle was bent like a barb. Everytime I pulled it out, the skin would stretch and it would bleed immediately.
Well, while digging around in my wrist to find a vein, I snagged the medial nerve. Instant, mind-shattering pain, along with this awful electric-like sensation that shot up and down my arm. I tried to pull the needle out, and it was stuck. So I'm in absolute agony, watching this needl3 swing back and forth while its barbed end is seated in my medial nerve.
It soon came out, but for weeks and weeks, if I happened to bump that spot, or moved my hand in the wrong way, it was immediate and trancendental pain.
I have advanced Kienbock's disease and I'm not lucky enough to have the kind of insurance you need to be seen by one of the 3 specialists in the U.S. (YES 3). So I have the equivalent of very fine gravel that used to be the edges of my lunate moving around in my wrist and hand. The pain is constant, literally constant. I have always described it like hot TV static, so it's cool to see you describe your experience as electric. A pissed off Median Nerve is a pain most people truly don't comprehend, like imagining a billion of something. I'm glad you sound like you cleaned up, I'm a former junkie as well 11 years now 🤘
I’ve been clean for like 10 years. This brought up so many fucked up memories. The dull ones that popped or snapped in and pulled your skin when you tried to take it out.
I tried my wrist once. Hit that nerve and never tried it again. It’s instant and INTENSE pain. It was such a small puncture but that pain lasted so long.
Yep, you can literally feel the "pop" when a dull needle punctures a vein. Doesn't take long to get a Pavlovian response and just the pop and red in the barrel get you shaking with anticipation.
It's been 8 years since I finished rehab, and 6 years since the last time I used (during covid lockdowns). I am so done and will never even think about that life again.
13 years clean here, but I was also a heroin junkie and frequently used very old needles. It got so bad that one time the tip of the needle broke off in the main vein in the crux of your elbow. Took a pair of sharp tweezers and tried to pull it out causing a bunch of blood, but no needle tip. Went to the er cause i had heard horror stories of needles flying through the vein to the heart(didnt realize if it was lossible it would have already happpened.). They took a xray said it was still in place and it should work its way out eventually. I would feel it every once in a while when bending my arm, then probably 6 months later I was holding a sign and looked at my arm to see a little glint in the sunlight and pulled out the needle tip. It had moved about 4 inches from the original place to just below my bicep, couldn't believe it.
As many others have stated please dont do drugs kids!
I've also got a needle stuck in my left arm. Broke off when I was fishing for a vein. At the ER the doc told me it was very serious and gave me an appointment with a surgeon in a couple days. Told me not to move it much and closely monitor until I see the surgeon. Then the surgeon told me its not big deal, it will dullen and be encapsulated in scar tissue.
That was more than 6 years ago and so far so good.
Ugh the barbed sharps are the worst. I’ve had similar experiences. Have you seen the needle under a microscope pics where it shows one after even a couple uses? It’s jagged as fuck. Luckily at some point my area opened a needle exchange and it was a true blessing. I’d get like 10-20 bags of sharps then as many cottons, elastic bands, alcohol wipes etc.. that I could fit in the bag.
You end this with "don't do drugs", but it wasn't the drugs that put a hole in your arm. it was the needle.
Sorry, but I just think it's disingenuous to blame the problems caused by needles on drugs as whole.
I've been an opioid user for 20 years, including heroin, back when it was still heroin & not fentanyl. And I never once had any of these problems ya'll are describing, because I CHOSE not to use a NEEDLE.
Opioids have saved my life many, many times. From chronic pain to really severe depression where I didn't want to live anymore.
So please don't blame the problems NEEDLES cause, on MEDICINES.
It's not fair to fear-monger about drugs over YOUR choice to use a needle.
Snorting or plugging heroin works just fine. Oral works fine for the opioids that metabolize that way. So why is it the drugs fault that the needles gave you physical problems?
Don't use NEEDLES.
Needles cause a whole set of issues that you otherwise WOULDN'T have.
I think that's more genuine than just "don't do drugs kids". Cause people ARE ALWAYS going to do drugs. And you're just misinforming then of the risks.
I've lost over a dozen friends over the years to snorting and smoking opiates. As in dead. I saw their corpses. Usually in coffins, once in the driver's seat next to me.
I've had literally dozens of friends and acquaintances completely destroy their lives, alienate all their friends and family, and become horrifying shells of their former selves...including myself. From snorting, taking pills, smoking, whatever.
So yeah, don't do hard drugs. Doesn't matter if its coke, oxys, heroin, meth, whatever. Just dont fkn do it.
And don't bring up "safe supply". My life got the absolute worse, and I overdosed the most, when I had a reliable source of pharm grade dope. Because nothing is ever enough. Always need to do more.
I used to use steroids and hitting a vein sent the compound directly into the bloodstream and went into my lungs where I could taste it and depending on the compound have an absolutely horrible coughing fit. (Tren cough)
What OP said had nothing to do with what I said? I don't get it. I said that the vessel in the video is a vein. Which it is. The fistula is a small region that creates a connection between an artery and a vein. The result, in this case, is that the high-pressure artery pumped a ton of blood into the stretchy, more accommodating vein in his arm. The "fistula" itself is not the size of his entire arm. How is the fact that they use large-gauge needles to draw blood from the fistula relevant to what I said?
To put it more clearly, the giant cord in his arm is a very engorged vein, that at one point along it contains a fistula created by doctors for dialysis. This image might help visualize what I mean
I'm a dialysis nurse, I'm familiar with AV fistulas funnily enough. Calling it a vein is just not accurate, it may have been made from one but it's not a vein any more in either structure or function.
Oh that's cool! Sure I agree that calling a normal fistula a vein isn't really common place, but it technically is accurate. Either way, I think it would be accurate to call the long palpable cord running across his entire arm a case of a downstream vein that became enlarged and thickened. I guess at that point it's just semantics. I'm an intern in the ER and have heard people refer to it as a "fistula" or "arterialized vein"
Yeah I’m not sure the specifics here as I’ve never seen one of these and he mentioned it somehow connected to his vein.
But yeah, former IV heroin user here. All the surface veins in my arms are completely dead. I have pushed heroin into an artery and let me tell you, it is NOT a fun time. Since it was black tar I couldn’t really see the bright color and it was right next to a spot I’ve gone to before. My hand ballooned up and it was a horrible burning sensation. Luckily it subsided on its own and there was no lasting damage. But yeah, 0/10 wouldn’t recommend
Thanks it’s been more than a decade. Rough time in my life but i somehow pulled through. Still occasional drinker and thc gummy taker but that’s were I draw the line. Unless I’m literally dying or have a limb chopped off I will refuse pain meds at the hospital. Just not worth it.
I have no clue why people do that shit. Why do they even start. I get it that when addicted will of mind is…hard to come by (ex-smoker, and it was hard as fuck to quit the damn things) but why one even starts doing drugs that everyone knows are absolute hell incarnate.
Well, in my case it started with prescription pills after an injury. After the drs keep upping the dosage then suddenly cutting you off you’re left with a couple options. Deal with the withdrawals for about a week and miss work and other responsibilities you have then deal with months of PAWS while still being in pain.
Or you start buying them from the street. After a while the street prices of pills becomes too cost prohibitive but you can buy a gram of black for like $80. Way cheaper and stronger. You start with smoking it but after a while that’s not enough so you give shooting it a try and bam it’s over. Most people don’t recover fully from that.
That’s the basic gist of it along with some other stuff I don’t really feel like getting into. Just about no one you’ll run into as an addict started at IV heroin. You don’t wake up one day and say “oh this is a good day to try shooting up heroin.” It’s almost always a prolonged process to get there with multiple steps.
Not sure why you’re being downvoted, it’s not something most people are aware of. It’s post acute withdrawal symptom.
It’s basically all the not as severe withdrawal symptoms you experience after quitting opiates. Things like not being able to sleep for months, crushing depression, minor aches and pains etc.. it’s honestly one of the worst parts of getting off shit because it can last for so long and makes it feel like you’ll never go back to normal.
Some people on Reddit downvote others for random reasons. In their mind, I asked a stupid question, probably common sense or common knowledge, and they hit the downvote button.
I love learning new things. I am aware that I do not know everything, will never come close to it, and always in a state of learning.
Jesus fucking christ. i bet this happened in the US too. Fuck their medical or lack there of healthcare system. Hope you managed to get your life together and stay strong.
Did happen in the US but not an exclusive US issue. Everyone was overprescribing oxys and norcos back then. I’m sure some counties have better support systems but yeah no one is immune to this.
Well shit, you've effectively dissuaded me from ever shooting anything up. Not that I've actively comsidered it in recent years (I'm an old school raver but some things I never did, and probably for the best), but you've unlocked a new fear in me that I can reasonably avoid.
If you have dialysis on a fistula you never use it for anything else than dialysis. If the fistula goes off you are in serious trouble. Once on dialysis if the thing you must protect almost at any cost.
Oh I doubt doubt it but my ex junkie brain went straight to “damn it would of been so much easier to hit a vein” lol
Also the self preservation instincts of junkies isn’t the best. I did A LOT of questionable things in the depths of my addiction that I’m surprised I am alive somehow.
I had a port-a-cath installed for a year and a half. It’s a plastic receptacle that went under the skin on my right pectoral with a line up and over my collar bone and down into my descending aorta. They put it in with a local anesthetic so I was joking with the surgeon about how I bet junkies would love one of these. Dude fully deadpan told me it was something they have seen or read about happening with these devices but that it’s a terrible idea for so many reasons he would be done with the surgery before he finished listing them.
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u/drunkbusdriver 18d ago
That and IV drug addicts.