What does it mean – collapsed vein?
sticking too many needles in your arm will “collapse” a vein. Junkies get it and so do people who are in hospital a lot with major illnesses who require intravenous treatment. The walls of the vein are weakened and it can’t support itself as it used to. I suppose that it varies in how “collapsed” it is from case to case but I know that in some cases (junkies I know of) the vein can totally collapse and old blood can get blocked in the vein causing infection etc. I know of a guy who had to have part of his lower arm amputated due to a collapsed vein that got infected and was left untreated. If you are in hospital and require drugs/fluid to be used intravenously over an extended period of time they will usually insert a shunt/catheter into the vein early on to artificially strengthen the vein walls so that it can be used repeatedly without collapsing.
