I love being a girl!

I had the girliest of girly days Tuesday.  Allow me to set this up for you.  Until around when I was 35 years old or so, I was an obsessive nail biter.  I bit those things almost down to the nub, too.  Ugh, my hands looked awful!  What made it worse is that my hands are small with short fingers (my palms are the largest part of my hands), so my hands looked absolutely horrible.  In my early 20's, I discovered artificial nails, but not the ones you get done at a salon, but the full nails that are bought at any store with nail glue.  The nails looked convincingly real and I enjoyed polishing these nails to perfection and showing off my lovely hands.  It turned out that my fingers, with longer nails, looked stunning, slim and not nearly as short as they had with munched on fingernails.  I was ecstatic.

The negative part of using artificial nails and glue is that it weakens the real nail and doesn't allow much growth, which had kind of been my intention when I had decided to wear them in the first place.  I guess it was around 2003 or '04 when I chose to stop using fake nails and grow out my own natural nails.  It took a while for them to regain some strength, although I am plagued with eternally weak, bendy nails as my mom has.  Now, my nails are so long and pretty and I love to look at my hands.  This leads to my girly day.

I was in my bathroom on Sunday when I lost my balance and grabbed the nearest wall and ugh!  I ripped one of my longest nails (my right ring finger) almost completely off.  I cursed the wall so loud!  I quickly put a band-aid around the finger to save the nail and thought to myself that I had seen something called a "nail wrap" at the store and wondered if I would be able to save my nail with it.  I know anyone who has never had long nails is thinking I was (and still am) insane to stress over a damn nail, but think about how much I am able to do in my daily life.  Umm, nothing!  I still cannot drive and August makes it five months since I've been behind the wheel.  My favorite thing to do is do my nails!  So yes, I was adamant on saving this nail.

When Dorraine arrived on Tuesday, we had to take Emmi Sue to the vet for her blood sugar check up (she is no longer on insulin as her sugar levels had leveled a bit too low) and afterwards, we stopped at Walgreen's.  She stayed in the car with my baby as I went in and was informed that they no longer carried nail wraps but the nearby Sally Beauty Supply had them, so off we went to Sally!  While at Sally, I was explained the correct way to use the wraps, brush-on nail resin and adhesive accelerator and know what?  I was able to save my fingernail!

OK, so on to slightly more important things.  How have I been feeling?  Well, I went in for my second cortisone injection yesterday afternoon, which explains the radiating pain I am experiencing from my hips today.  I'm sure this will pass within the next few days as it did get somewhat better after the first injection.  I'm hoping I won't need to go in for the third round of cortisone in a couple weeks, but we'll see how my body feels.

The worst side effect I experienced from the cortisone was extreme depression and the "need" to eat from the moment I would awaken for an entire week after the treatment.  However, I armed myself against it this time.  I called my psychiatrist ahead of time and was given an extra 50mg. Pristiq for one week to add to the 100mg. I take each day.  I hope this helps as my depression had gotten quite bad.  I also increased my Topamax back up to three tablets in the morning and evening, rather than two at both times.  I've been less hungry for the last week or so, so I know it is already working but not sure how it will react against the cortisone.  I just didn't want to leave things to chance or my own will-power, as I would be sure to fail if I had done that.

Some may disagree that choosing medication is a way of depending on myself, but knowing when to ask for help is a strength, not a weakness.

The best news is that my younger brother, Gonzalo, has left California and is back home!  He came by train but with my not feeling too well today, I won't have my parents pick me up to visit until tomorrow.  It'll be so nice to see him again as it has been almost a year since the last time we spent time together and I love him so much. ♥