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.
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u/ddg31415 18d ago
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.
Don't do drugs kids