Hey everyone! Just a warning that this is going to go into VERY thorough detail because it's necessary for my question (at least I think it is). I'm basically asking how to treat my self harm cuts, since this recent relapse was different from my others so I'm not sure how to approach it. This is HIGHLY likely to be really triggering since I need to get into some detail, so please avoid reading if you think it'll trigger you, and if you get into reading it and end up feeling triggered, PLEASE STOP!!!!!!!!

So one thing lead to another (more like a lot of things built up and it was on my mind for a while before I caved) and I relapsed again. The purpose of this thread isn't to talk about the emotional issues behind this, but the physical aftermath. My experience this time wasn't like my others.

My job requires me to have a boxcutter (I work in sending and receiving). Our boxcutters use the blades that have sections to break off when your current blade is too dull. I snapped off my used section and the first thing I did with the new section was harm myself. I hadn't used it for any of my work, though it has been sitting in my knife for a while. It was a lot sharper than I expected (I'm used to using the same pair of scissors for this, so I'm not used to the sharpness of new blades) so I did more damage than I intended.

I have clusters of small cuts on both my ankles as a result and one of my ankles is slightly swollen. I just wanted to know if there's any danger of infection I need to worry about? I'm not entirely sure how to go about treating this. I had bandaids with poly on them for a few hours, I'm going to bed now and letting them breathe. I'm hoping to clean the cuts during my shower in the morning. They itched a lot initially, but stopped after a while and are beginning to itch again.

If anyone has any advice, please let me know! I apologize for needing to go into so much detail, all this information seems important for answering my question.

Thank you in advance, and I hope everyone's doing well