SI Question - Infomation on cuts - poss trigger

[stolen_innocence]

Ok, I have made the choice to take care of my self harm more.

I never do anything with my cuts, I never see a G.P, I never apply stuff, bandage, so it gets infected, and I leave it infected. Its mainly cos I dont know what to do!

After ive cut and calmed down, what shall I do? Can you list all the things I would need for first aid, and where could I get it from, somewhere like Boots?

Now for the possible triggery things..

When I cut, the cut gapes open slightly, The thing is, my cuts arent deep, but they do gape. Can NON deep cuts still gape?

Onto skin layers. I cut down to a whitish layer. What is that?

[Voldemort]

The layer you see is probably another skin layer, how much do the cuts gape?

In terms of first aid stuff, you should get some antiseptic cream or spray (savlon/germolene are good), some melolin non-stick pads, bandages or adhesive wound pads, medical tape and possibly some butterfly stitches.

After you've calmed down you should clean the wound with some warm water and mild soap, dry it thoroughly and make sure it's stopped bleeding. Then you can see whether it needs closing or not, if it's gaping but less than 0.5cm you can close it with steri strips (butterfly stitches) then cover it with a melolin pad and bandage it up. If they don't need closing, cover them with antiseptic cream/spray and either put an adhesive wound pad on it, or a melolin dressing and bandage.

If you ever have cuts that gape more than 0.5cm or that you can see fat in you need to go and get them checked out by a Dr.

The antiseptic cream should prevent infections, but you should keep an eye out for swelling, redness, thick yellow pus and heat from the wound too.

[stolen_innocence]

Sorry i took so bloody long to reply to this!

How much do the cuts gape...well, I dont know havent got a measuring thingy..sometimes there is bubbly stuff underneath and its whitish. but then it bleeds and dries up inside, and then you cant see the underneath bubbly or whitish stuff....if i make sense lol.
sounds stupid i know but can cuts be superficial if they gape a little open?x

[Animad]

Is the bubbly stuff yellow? If so, that is fat and you should get the cuts looked at regardless of how much the gape. The whitish bit is likely to be a deeper layer of skin. In terms of how much they gape, if you are telling us, it doesn't have to be totally accurate, just a reasonable guess; we don't expect you to get a ruler out!

Yes, if cuts gape a little they can still be superficial. Superficial tends to mean anything that doesn't go through the skin and cuts that don't go through the deepest layer of skin can still gape. Though, whether superficial or not, they still need to looked after properly and be looked at by the doctor. Superficial is just a medical term, it isn't somethnig that should make a difference to you.