miscalculation tonight. saline flush first, before inserting the tube. pushing the plastic plunger down is always the reintroduction to the process. it's painful, like someone pressing on a bruise. but then cool - the liquid is cooler than my warm flesh. so that's soothing.

but the bruise didn't stop. and i heard a squishy sound. i saw some fluid under the clear tape holding the needle in my arm. a little backup - no big deal. i inserted the IV, typed in 115 ml, to be delivered over one hour. i sat through the waning scenes of full eclipse as i felt the slow bruising continue. finally the pain got so bad i stopped the machine. i called the nurses they told me to pull the rig from my arm and wait until the morning, when one of them would visit. I pulled off the tape and most of my arm hair, finally extracting the tubes and needles fully from my body. i inspected my forearm - it was abnormally swollen. i'd been injecting the glucose into my arm improperly - probably my vein seized up. now my trackmark is leaking watery blood. ow.

the night nurse: you flooded your tissues with the medicine. it'll be swollen and painful, probably for a few days. but that's not unusual. your body will absorb it. put a bandaid on it real tight.

this is my right arm.

two days ago a nurse came to my house to remove an IV needle from my left arm, because it was hurting too bad - all the time, even when i wasn't injecting. she tried another place on my left arm, but my vein was seized up - it wouldn't let fluid in and it hurt mightily. where are they going to try next?