Venous catheter

[Justnotme]

Hi everybody. Tell me, please, has anyone ever inserted a catheter into a vein on their own?
In the crook of the arm, for example.
How difficult is it to do it yourself?
I need to put a venous catheter in my arm.

And one more question: have you ever injected lidocaine into your vein?

 

[emptybox]

I have no medical background etc., but I managed to learn how to do it in at least two places - on my wrist and in crook of my arm.

I experimented only with 18G(green) and 22G(blue) cannulas.
I have very prominent veins that are right under the surface so there's no problem with "finding" them. I don't have a fear of needles but I still get very nervous in the process. I don't have any conditions that affect my blood, as I know.

It was difficult at first but I got better with practice. For me, even with my big veins, it still was difficult to insert the needle in the way that wouldn't just puncture the vein and then go wrong, I had to practice to understand what angle works the best.
Another problem was to do all the work with only one hand: you can't fixate the skin and everything is wobbly; removing a cap is hard with only one hand(can just take a cap from another cannula in advance though), you can't pressure the vein(a bit) while removing the needle so it will bleed before you put the cap on, it can cause blood clots, it's hard to flush, it's hard to even put a bandage on it to fixate with only one hand, if you do it wrong the cannula will move, etc. etc. And it's just unsafe.

cannulation, wrist - in this video you can see how many actions require both hands...

Blood clots, infection, bleeding under your skin and hematomas are some of the risks, if you're going to try please be careful, watch videos, preferrably on your language(I noticed technique can be different in different countries?), read comments - sometimes there's wrong information in the video. Read instructions, look at pictures, anything that works best for you to learn.

It's also important to choose a right size. It depends on how big your veins are and what place you choose. My veins are big so for the crook of my arm I can easily use 18G(green), for wrist I can use 22G(blue) or 20G(pink).

There's a person on this forum who described injecting lidocaine intravenously, but I think you've already seen it.
I myself am planning to use lidocaine+propofol(Anestofol) also and combine it with something else, most likely, but I'm not sure yet.

 

[Justnotme]

Thank you so much for such a detailed answer, it's very useful!
I watched a YouTube video in my own language (in Russian). The woman in this video inserts a catheter into her vein so easily... I thought I shouldn't have such difficulties...
I am very upset by the fact that it is very difficult to do :(
Please tell me, when you managed to put a catheter into a vein, how did you check that the catheter was not pierced through the vein and that it was in the correct position? Did you use saline to test it?
And have you ever faced the fact that you have formed a blood clot, bruise or blood poisoning due to improper insertion of a catheter into a vein?

 

[emptybox]

She must have practiced a lot before recording that, IV cannulation isn't considered a very easy procedure for people who are not trained medically...

Please tell me, when you managed to put a catheter into a vein, how did you check that the catheter was not pierced through the vein and that it was in the correct position? Did you use saline to test it?

When the vein was pierced through, blood spread under the skin and formed a hematoma, like in this video. In this case you need to remove everything and leave that vein alone. Sometimes it's not as noticeable, so you need to look for other signs:
If you are in the vein, you will see blood in the chamber(1) and in the catheter(as you start removing the needle)(2), like here: (from this video)

But that's not enough,
Yes, you need to use saline to make sure the catheter is actually in the vein and it's going to work properly, like here.

I didn't do that with saline, I just used a syringe to draw blood to make sure it's flowing, but it's NOT how you're supposed to do it !
It was also obvious it was in the vein because it would bleed on its own until I put a cap on, but even if it seems obvious you need to make sure anyway, if you're too slow blood will start clotting, and the port will be clogged, and then it's not going to work.
This happened to me once, and I was very stupid: I didn't want to remove it, so I just let more blood flow freely until some of the clotted blood was flushed away, then tried to mechanically remove the rest of it with a needle. DON'T DO IT! If it happens, just remove everything and do again in another place with another vein...
You want to prevent it from happening so follow instructions that actual medical professionals give. I'm here to show what to avoid...ha ha

And have you ever faced the fact that you have formed a blood clot, bruise or blood poisoning due to improper insertion of a catheter into a vein?

Didn't have blood clots inside of my veins, only what I just described. Had a small bruise after what I described earlier - when you pierce the vein and a hematoma forms, it happens. No infection, I usually remove a cannula a few minutes/hours after making sure everything "works" since there's no need to keep it in for days.

Be careful, and if something goes wrong just stop. And please don't ignore the saline solution part like I did!(I'm not going to ignore it again)
________________________________________
I just found videos of people cannulating themselves:
- Wrist
- Forearm
Cannulas are different but I think it still can be useful

 

[Sunset Limited]

Injecting lidocaine is bad idea. Lidocaine is not a sedative it is an amide local anesthetic. CNS effects will begin before cardiac effects. You will have convulsions.