All right trussell!!! You now have the "gun that won the West," basically. It worked for very good reasons then, and with modern ammunition making up for the shorter barrel length somewhat, it will also work well now.
Melinda, the only way you may damage yourself is if a really bad guy takes your now empty .38 from your shaking hand and proceeds to beat you to death with it. It happens. With the nutrition and medications available today, there are some very tough customers out there, willing and practicing (often at gov't expense, indoors) to do harm. Also, as our brother Squantos has often reported: "people who have not watched a lot of TV do not realize that they should fall down after being shot." Many "stops" are more the result of psychological shock than anything else, but I personally think it unwise to rely upon that. Police forces are frequently going to, or entertaining the idea of changing to the .40 S&W from the even slightly LESS than .38 caliber 9mm, for a practical reason....bigger, heavier, and only sometimes faster works better, often. In a potentially lethal encounter, you may hardly even notice the sound of your .357, and will invariably, at that very moment, wish you were using something a lot more powerful to protect your life with, like a bazooka. The big noise at the range fails to impress anyone when the chips are really down, and the reality is that it isn't the bark but the bite, and weight of the dog, that wins. As Squantos has affirmed, our civilian handguns are for up-close and URGENT self defense, and we need them to work well the first time, under all circumstances, against all mortal threats. This is not the time to be cheap, nor the time for wishful thinking. If your bullet placement is not exactly precise, as it probably shall not at all be, pathologists agree that at least adequate penetration depth may prove the deciding factor in disabling your opponent in time to protect yourself, which is what all this consideration is about. It is not about trying to get a pipsqueak to do a sledgehammer's job. That is what sledgehammers are for, and you may not have the luxury of enough time to run home for more ammunition to continue the applications.
Honestly, why don't you try a .357 some time, preferably outside, without any sound-reflecting obstructions nearby. All it is is a faster .38, that's all. Forget about the "magnum" terminology. That is only a sales pitch. The day that a salesman or gun-writer volunteers to hop into your grave instead of you, you may want to consider doing what he advises. Before then, as the most experienced and honest say, "use enough gun."
http://www.firearmstactical.com/wound.htm