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If you think you have an abscess this is for you
So I finally stopped being lazy and brought over one of my writings from TSC to help you guys out on the matter. This, like all my writings is an original, by me, from my base of knowledge being a medical professional. I hope that this is helpful to everyone here. More to come on other subjects of course.
Many people often come on the board asking about infections more often than not these people are complaining about some common symptoms leading them to think it maybe an infection. For ease of reading, I’ve made them into a list instead of actually talking about them for ease since most people won’t bother actually reading this if it is typed any other way. I make no apologies for how long this is, in the big scheme of things it is fairly short, I tried to keep it brief and informative and I made every effort to shorten it when possible in reality this is only about two pages worth of typing even with the lists.
Common signs that people complain about:
Redness
Soreness
Swelling
Heat from injection
Swelling in places other than injection (commonly in the arms or legs)
Pain
Generally a day or two after the injection, this is not an infection!!!
These however are more common symptoms of irritation, you just stuck a needle into a muscle and put a foreign substance into it, more often than not this is going to lead to an inflammatory response. These are common and happen for various reasons, commonly the injection leaked into the fat tissues, which are not as densely packed allowing the fluid to travel, this can and generally will cause swelling. It is not uncommon in quad shots when fluid has leaked to travel downwards due to gravity, this will cause redness, swelling and pain all the way to the knee in some cases. With practice and over time these will no longer be an issue for most shots you will do, these are more common for virgin muscles that are being shot for the first time, people using poor technique, or just a poor shot which unfortunately does happen from time to time.
Now let’s talk infection.
Common signs of an INFECTION:
A fever of 101+
Redness and swelling anywhere from 7-14 days after the injection
Sever pain (about a 7-8 on the 10 scale)
A hard lump or swelling at the injection site (again 7-14 days later)
Persistent swelling that continues (after a week or so if there is swelling take a pen and CAREFULLY draw around the border, watch it to see if it spreads or is actually decreasing)
A visible abscess forms
DO NOT!!! DRAIN ANYTHING YOURSELF!!!! IT CAN KILL YOU
Infections are very rare if you are following the basics and making sure everything is sterile so most of you will go your whole lives without ever needing to deal with this These are the general signs that you have an infection, notice that none of them set in anywhere near the actual time of injection. Infections unfortunately need time to form and the body needs to respond to the infection before you will ever have any idea you have one. This takes time and can take anywhere from 7 days to as long as two weeks, so when people complain after a day or two about the shot they did I can tell you right away it is not an infection. In fact you WILL know if you have an infection so you will not be coming here saying ‘I think I have an infection’, you will be coming on saying ‘I have a no shit infection right now’.
Like I said infections are rare but they do happen. Common sense applies but let’s go over once more things you can do to keep yourself from having an infection and so you can have peace of mind that your shot went well.
Prevention:
Use alcohol wipes to clean the tops of the vial and the injection site
Do not touch the needle to anything other than the site you are injecting or to the top of the vial that you are drawing from (Even with an alcohol wipe)
Always when drawing look at the oil to insure nothing is floating in it, it should be clear as crystal if there is anything other than air bubbles in it you do not want that in your body.
Make sure you let the alcohol evaporate before you start, the antibacterial properties of alcohol come from its evaporation not its application so it isn’t sterile until it dries and do NOT blow on it to dry it faster let it air dry.
Have a system, do the same thing over and over so you don’t forget anything and so you can check each step off your list, you can even write out a list if you are worried.
I recently had an instance with some of my home brew, some of my vials are fairly old so the rubber stoppers are starting to dry out, I was drawing some tren into my needle and because I always watch it and look at the oil (mostly because I like the way it looks I will be honest). I noticed a piece of the stopper had gotten sucked into the needle, after going back and forth with it I saved most of the gear and the stopper piece went into the sink instead of my body. This will cause some of the worst kinds of infections because foreign objects that are solid like that will not break down inside the body, the doctor will have to cut it out, it would be like finding a needle in a hay stack so be careful!!
Lastly, I want to say again common sense applies still, awhile back, a member came on here talking about a friend who went to the hospital and died because he had an infection, they wanted to amputate; amputation is the last option, period. He had to have waited a very long time for it to get to the point that they couldn’t even save the body part, I am all for natural selection but I hate the idea of anyone dying over something that can be prevented like this. Knowledge is power so know your body, know what to look for and know when to seek actual medical attention for it.
Please note that even though I am a Doctor I cannot and will not give medical advice, I have and will give you my opinion on issues; what I would do if I were in your shoes. I will point you in the right direction but it is against the law for me to offer any sort medical advice, it is also unethical and I am not that kind of person. That being said, stay safe and know what to look out for, when in doubt ask but a little research and an ounce of prevention will go a long way in making you feel confident in yourself and your abilities.
Antibiotics should be a last resort, you WILL KNOW if you need it, but even if that is the case my first and only real suggestion is seek medical attention, if the abscess is caused by something other than bacteria (read: stopper or other solid contaminant) the body has no way to fight it off, it needs to be removed that would be like trying to remove a needle from a haystack, it is not precise. But it is worth repeating, infections are rare, they do happen but they are quite rare if you follow proper procedures.
For those of you who actually bothered to read all of this, thank you it is unfortunate that you are the people that this article will probably not even apply to.
So I finally stopped being lazy and brought over one of my writings from TSC to help you guys out on the matter. This, like all my writings is an original, by me, from my base of knowledge being a medical professional. I hope that this is helpful to everyone here. More to come on other subjects of course.
Many people often come on the board asking about infections more often than not these people are complaining about some common symptoms leading them to think it maybe an infection. For ease of reading, I’ve made them into a list instead of actually talking about them for ease since most people won’t bother actually reading this if it is typed any other way. I make no apologies for how long this is, in the big scheme of things it is fairly short, I tried to keep it brief and informative and I made every effort to shorten it when possible in reality this is only about two pages worth of typing even with the lists.
Common signs that people complain about:
Redness
Soreness
Swelling
Heat from injection
Swelling in places other than injection (commonly in the arms or legs)
Pain
Generally a day or two after the injection, this is not an infection!!!
These however are more common symptoms of irritation, you just stuck a needle into a muscle and put a foreign substance into it, more often than not this is going to lead to an inflammatory response. These are common and happen for various reasons, commonly the injection leaked into the fat tissues, which are not as densely packed allowing the fluid to travel, this can and generally will cause swelling. It is not uncommon in quad shots when fluid has leaked to travel downwards due to gravity, this will cause redness, swelling and pain all the way to the knee in some cases. With practice and over time these will no longer be an issue for most shots you will do, these are more common for virgin muscles that are being shot for the first time, people using poor technique, or just a poor shot which unfortunately does happen from time to time.
Now let’s talk infection.
Common signs of an INFECTION:
A fever of 101+
Redness and swelling anywhere from 7-14 days after the injection
Sever pain (about a 7-8 on the 10 scale)
A hard lump or swelling at the injection site (again 7-14 days later)
Persistent swelling that continues (after a week or so if there is swelling take a pen and CAREFULLY draw around the border, watch it to see if it spreads or is actually decreasing)
A visible abscess forms
DO NOT!!! DRAIN ANYTHING YOURSELF!!!! IT CAN KILL YOU
Infections are very rare if you are following the basics and making sure everything is sterile so most of you will go your whole lives without ever needing to deal with this These are the general signs that you have an infection, notice that none of them set in anywhere near the actual time of injection. Infections unfortunately need time to form and the body needs to respond to the infection before you will ever have any idea you have one. This takes time and can take anywhere from 7 days to as long as two weeks, so when people complain after a day or two about the shot they did I can tell you right away it is not an infection. In fact you WILL know if you have an infection so you will not be coming here saying ‘I think I have an infection’, you will be coming on saying ‘I have a no shit infection right now’.
Like I said infections are rare but they do happen. Common sense applies but let’s go over once more things you can do to keep yourself from having an infection and so you can have peace of mind that your shot went well.
Prevention:
Use alcohol wipes to clean the tops of the vial and the injection site
Do not touch the needle to anything other than the site you are injecting or to the top of the vial that you are drawing from (Even with an alcohol wipe)
Always when drawing look at the oil to insure nothing is floating in it, it should be clear as crystal if there is anything other than air bubbles in it you do not want that in your body.
Make sure you let the alcohol evaporate before you start, the antibacterial properties of alcohol come from its evaporation not its application so it isn’t sterile until it dries and do NOT blow on it to dry it faster let it air dry.
Have a system, do the same thing over and over so you don’t forget anything and so you can check each step off your list, you can even write out a list if you are worried.
I recently had an instance with some of my home brew, some of my vials are fairly old so the rubber stoppers are starting to dry out, I was drawing some tren into my needle and because I always watch it and look at the oil (mostly because I like the way it looks I will be honest). I noticed a piece of the stopper had gotten sucked into the needle, after going back and forth with it I saved most of the gear and the stopper piece went into the sink instead of my body. This will cause some of the worst kinds of infections because foreign objects that are solid like that will not break down inside the body, the doctor will have to cut it out, it would be like finding a needle in a hay stack so be careful!!
Lastly, I want to say again common sense applies still, awhile back, a member came on here talking about a friend who went to the hospital and died because he had an infection, they wanted to amputate; amputation is the last option, period. He had to have waited a very long time for it to get to the point that they couldn’t even save the body part, I am all for natural selection but I hate the idea of anyone dying over something that can be prevented like this. Knowledge is power so know your body, know what to look for and know when to seek actual medical attention for it.
Please note that even though I am a Doctor I cannot and will not give medical advice, I have and will give you my opinion on issues; what I would do if I were in your shoes. I will point you in the right direction but it is against the law for me to offer any sort medical advice, it is also unethical and I am not that kind of person. That being said, stay safe and know what to look out for, when in doubt ask but a little research and an ounce of prevention will go a long way in making you feel confident in yourself and your abilities.
Antibiotics should be a last resort, you WILL KNOW if you need it, but even if that is the case my first and only real suggestion is seek medical attention, if the abscess is caused by something other than bacteria (read: stopper or other solid contaminant) the body has no way to fight it off, it needs to be removed that would be like trying to remove a needle from a haystack, it is not precise. But it is worth repeating, infections are rare, they do happen but they are quite rare if you follow proper procedures.
For those of you who actually bothered to read all of this, thank you it is unfortunate that you are the people that this article will probably not even apply to.
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