Monday 12 March 2018

Fingernails

How do you cut, or trim, your fingernails?

There are only two or three ways to answer that question. You can cut them with nail scissors. You can use some sort of special nail trimming tool. Or you can cut them with nail clippers. Me? I prefer the clippers, especially over the last few years as I have slowly been losing fine motor control and strength in my hands and arms. Then, beyond the tool you use, there is one way, and only one way, to cut your own finger nails. That is using the left hand to cut the right, and the right hand to cut the left.

Unfortunately that slow degradation of ability in my left hand has become a true problem for trimming my nails. My right hand is up to the task. I grip the clippers between my thumb and the side of my index finger, position the business end on the target, and clip away. On the other hand, quite literally, it is not quite as easy. I grip the clippers in the same manner, between my thumb and index finger, position the business end on the target, but do not have sufficient strength to overcome the resistance presented by the nail itself. I can easily operate the clippers until such point as I actually want to clip something. Then it all comes to a grinding, back-pressured halt.

Instead, to clip my right fingers with my left hand, I am compelled to place the clippers between the ball of my hand, at the base of my thumb, then put the other part across three or four of the fingers, those fingers providing the leverage for clippage. It's not as accurate a method as the designed method, the one with the thumb and index finger. That means I inevitably have jagged little bits here or there which I may or may not be able to file off, depending on the cooperation of my hands, along with my now failing hand-eye coordination.

It will come time, soon, when I will have to ask Home Care about trimming my nails. I'm not sure if it will be part of my Care Plan. I know that Foot Care is considered outside of the HCA realm, meaning they are not permitted to even trim my toenails. I suspect that hand care, or more correctly, fingernail care will likely not be covered either. That will mean paying extra, or just letting my nails get sufficient long such that someone gets sufficiently disgusted and trims them for me. I'll let you all know how this works out.


4 comments:

  1. Maybe they could add that to the time they should be there? Lol

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  2. Hi Richard. How are you? Have you managed to sort your toenail issue? Do you have any family members who could help you? Laura

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  3. Files are lighter and less grip is required. Using a heavier grit file trims nails down faster.

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  4. You seem to have lots of friends over ,if i had a friend in this situation i would be more than happy to trim and file their nails. Just a thought , i think people would be very appreciative to help you in some way

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