missed shot, swelling, need advice

[MoeMentim (OP)]

thursday night/friday morning i missed (partial) a shot of meth and h (today is saturday am).  i've missed before and always did the heat/ massage routine.  for whatever reason i didn't do that this time.  my forearm toward my wrist is swollen.  there's no pain, just a tight sensation & it looks like it's gone down a bit maybe, at least no worse this morning than yesterday but now theres some red splotches near but not right at the injection site.  i'm icing it, not really sure if that's what i should do but it makes sense.  i'm searching & searching online but not finding much useful info.  just either "go to the hospital right now" or "don't worry about it it'll be fine."  wish this place got more traffic, someone here knows what i should do.  @candy
Post Merged: March 24, 2019, 01:41:53 AMfrom what i'm seeing online it may just be a blown vein, i'm not sure i missed per se, no hard lump afterward, no pain.  debating on going to urgent care, i have no insurance & no way to pay.  i don't think i see any signs of an abscess.  boy do i miss o'phile today, i have zero people i can talk to about this, nobody.

[Catsfordrugs]

Well... of course I can’t tell or tell you what you should do, but at the risk of telling you stuff you already know, I can tell you why you might do it.

The (proven?) theory behind icing is to reduce swelling. So like sprained ankles or some other injury like that gets iced so that the swelling goes down. In those cases, the swelling is not caused by infection, but (I think) by fluid in the body helping to immobilize the injured part/appendage and limit the range of motion, giving it time to heal. That way you can’t fully move whatever the injured part is, and cause worse injury.

Heat and massage are better (than ice) for fighting a localized infection. The heat helps encourage blood flow to the infection, allowing your immune system/white (?) blood cells to fight it. Massage helps break up whatever would be growing in there, and spread out, at least a bit, so that again, more blood can pass over and fight/kill off infection.

Pretty sure that’s the theory behind those two approaches. So, if infection is the problem, I’d think heat and massage would be the way to go. With that in mind, I’m no doctor, and wouldn’t be qualified to give anyone medical advice. Hope it goes away quick. You could also trace the outline of the swollen area with a pen, so you can tell if it is spreading/getting larger, or going away over the course of the next 12-24 hrs. Don’t hesitate to have a doc check it out.

[MoeMentim (OP)]

thanks man.  sunday morning now & swelling has gone way down, red splotches not growing & are starting to fade a bit so i'm in the clear, minus one usable vein.