No, not the kind of thumbnail you're thinking of...

The thumbnail on my right hand is cracked. It has been cracked for going on two years now, and I don't know what to do about it.

I can trim the nail to the point where there is only a fraction of a millimeter of crack left, and as the nail grows out the crack grows with it. If I bang the nail on something the crack will spread further down the nail, but otherwise it stays right where it is in the picture. I have tried the usual remedies (cyanoacrylic glue and repair powder) and that covers and protects the cracked area, but the crack remains and exactly matches the growth of the nail.

BTW... if you want an interesting challenge, just try photographing your right thumbnail!

tanstaafl.

Try an antifungal.

If I were concerned about it, I'd go to a manicurist. And not that cheap strip-mall manicurist, either. Find the most reputable spa you can and have it done there. Pay ten times as much. You're probably only going to need to do it once.

(I think they have fiberglass plasters for exactly this sort of thing, which I think is really cool.)

Don't let the manicurist put any designs of birds, flowers or insert fake gems onto the nail though. I've regretted it every time.

Perhaps this is more your style?

laughing *with* you

Nicely done. What sort of camera did you use?

My camera is laid out like an SLR (Panasonic DMC-50Z) with the shutter release reachable only with the right hand, while camera support and focusing is done with the left. I ended up having to preset the focus manually, then use the 10 second timer to start the shutter release countdown while I transferred the camera to my left hand, moving my right hand into the picture in time for the actual exposure.

I still haven't figured out why the split in that nail has remained for nearly two years though. It suggests that there is some underlying pathology there causing the nail to split as it grows out. It never gets worse (unless I accidentally bang the nail on something which is why I keep it cut so short) but it never gets better, either. [Bitt: Should that be "neither" rather than "either"?] A puzzling annoyance.

tanstaafl.

No. Then it would be a double-negative ("never" + "neither"), which is either grammatically or logically incorrect, depending on your grammar nazi quotient. You could, though, rephrase it as "but neither does it get any better."

It's probably damage to the underlying nail bed. It might be, as suggested, a fungal infection as these can last for years. Or it may just be some bad cells that aren't replicating keratin properly. I had a slightly odd toenail that did something similar for many years. It eventually seemed to fix itself, but it took a very long time.

There are all sorts of conditions and diseases that show up as changes in the nails.

pca

My Olympus Stylus 1030-SW. It's a palm-size point-n-shoot, and has a 2cm focus-distance in super-macro mode. As a camera, it's mediocre at best. The only reason I bought it is because it's so dang tough. Shockproof and waterproof -- exactly what I need for whitewater kayaking.

My left index finger has something similar. It was the result of something being jammed deeply into the cuticle. (Edit: Jewelers screwdriver, and yes I was misusing that tool at the time) I suspect a bit of scar tissue is mucking things up.

My nail is just a bit thin, from the underside, and if the nail gets too long, it tends to split and tear off to the short side, leaving a big chunk missing.

I asked my Doc about it once, About the only option is to remove the nail. Anything else would likely just make the problem worse.

Very simple solution: Hold the camera upside down, and press the shutter with you left thumb?

I tried that, and it can be done, but in that orientation the balance of the camera is very awkward with the hand turned upside down as well as the camera, and it was quite difficult to support the weight of the camera primarily with my thumb and simultaneously work the shutter release. In the end, the timer was the better solution.

tanstaafl.