Question about needle placement

[smaberi]

Hello!

I recently attempted my first saline infusion. After reading many forums and articles I had a pretty good idea of the process. I have some experience with needles and sterile working due to my diabetes.

Before I began, I thoroughly washed my hands and scrotal area, and ensured the chair where I would be sitting was clean. I disinfected everything with 80% alcohol and sterile gauze. I flushed the tubing and needle to ensure there was no air, and then sat down to start.

It was quite scary since I had never done this, but after some time I managed to insert the needle. However, no matter how far I opened the clamp, no fluid was running (I could tell because no new drops were falling from the bag into the chamber).

I tried again with a new needle in a slightly different spot and this time I did notice there was some flow but the swelling seemed to concentrate around the needle.

The bag was about 3 feet above the infusion site.

What did I do wrong?

Thanks

[Rafdk]

Looking forward to comments

[DrDeadDick]

Straight in here did the trick.
Saline went straight in. Whoosh. What a rush.

I injected.
Too impatient for a drip feed. ):-]
19G needle.

Don't waste your time with a drip feed.

I was sort of nervous, but I had seen so many pics of needles into sacs with no problems that I wasn't worried. Wheee.

Once I started I really got carried away. LOL
Sac ended up the size of a small melon.
Ran out of saline. Grrrrr. LOL

Size and weight between your fingers and legs is another rush.

[pipefitterdom]

Looking forward to comments

You did nothing wrong. The concentrated area is normal, things will even out when the swelling begins!
I use a 23 gauge with a pressure cuff. If I want to fill fast, I use a 19 or 21.

[smaberi]

UPDATE: I've tried again after someone informed me that I might have not sticked the needle in far enough last time. It seemed to flow a lot better that time.

However, I was so tense about it that when I finally had it in and could relax I started feeling unwell due to a drop in blood pressure (this happens when I give blood too). A doctor has suggested that I should practice not to tense up so much beforehand so I don't have a sudden drop in blood pressure.

I fortunately I removed the needle when I started feeling unwell. I will try again after the weather has cooled down some.

[acm3rd]

Your admin set should be longer than 3ft, more like 6ft+. Use as much as you can and let gravity do the work. You'll find that adding just a foot in height makes a difference. Also, don't just sit there waiting for it to start if it's not flowing at all or very slowly. It's not going to. You'll be there for hours. Apply some traction to the catheter, move it around some. Even though I've done this hundreds of times, I still get stuck once in a while and it just won't flow. I just give up, pull it out, patch the hole, sterilize another area and insert new catheter, carefully remove the old catheter from the line and connect line to new catheter and try again. All above is done carefully using sterile techniques. You'll get there.

Al

[pipefitterdom]

You can get a pressure cuff for your IV bag. It speeds things up quite a bit.
Sometimes it helps to move your sack around while watching the drip and keeping it in the best position possible.