Small veins
Injecting into small veins is risky: the chances of the vein splitting, or not being able to take the volume of liquid you are injecting, are high.

Hands
The veins in the hands are very small, sensitive and are easily damaged or split.

Blocking these veins causes puffy, blue and cold hands with poor circulation. Swollen fingers can have their circulation cut off by rings. Make sure you take all your rings off if you are injecting into your hands.

If you do inject into one of these small veins - where the blood can only flow slowly - you can reduce the risk of a split vein, or injecting a lot of fluid into the tissue around the vein having missed it, if you inject slowly.

Feet/ankles
The veins here are even more fragile than those of the hands. They can be more painful too.

Because the veins are fragile and because the blood flows slowly, injections into the feet often miss. You can reduce this risk if you inject slowly.

Slow blood flow also increases the risk of infection. Because feet are warm and sweaty, the skin has high levels of bacteria. So it is important to wash them carefully, with soap and hot water, before attempting to inject.

If you start injecting into your feet/ankles it won’t be long before you are spending days in pain and unable to put shoes on. If you are thinking about injecting into your feet it would be a good idea to start considering alternatives to injecting.

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