Selenium.

I went to my doctor many years ago, and I said to him, “I will show you something you may not see too often.” I was able to get to see my doctor the day after it happened. I showed him my thumb and said, “Yesterday as I stood up with my thumb on the table, and I heard and felt the hard part of my thumb snap from left to right in the middle of my thumb.” I showed him my blooded thumb, he looked at it, the blooded line where it had broken under the slight pressure. I told him a bit more of my history. He took a good look at my very sore thumb, then he said, “I Could refer you to the skin hospital,” I thought it was a bit trivial, and said, “No thank you.” He replied, “In the future, if you change you mind, I will refer you.” I said, “Thank you and left.”

It was only my thumbs, where the split from left to right would start, and slowly rip at the ‘skin,’ from right to left, or at both ends, catching on my hair or clothes and everything else. When it would catch and rip and bleed, as it was ripped to my skin, it was then I would put a plaster on! I was unable to cut the nail, with my nail clippers as it had torn to my nail, skin. The pain was awful.

Some at work when they saw me with the plaster would ask, “Why have you got plasters on both of your thumbs?” I would take it off and show them, it would make them cringe.

Over the years I have tried various things, like eating raw jelly, that was a dead cert, it didn’t work, I was probably doing it wrong, like missing many days, so eating a whole packet to make up for it. I was told to eat a cube a day. I tried putting on nail varnish, and nail strengthened, varnish, but I wasn’t consistent in putting it on.

Recently I was in TKMaxx and saw something for nails, gummies reduced and for vegans. I picked it up and thought about buying it, for it, if it is for vegans, it must be harmless and good for you.

The word on the bottle said, collagen, I didn’t know what that was, but I didn’t feel comfortable enough to buy it, even if it was good enough for vegans, so even though it was reduced to £4 I decided to leave it. Gummies seem easy to take as tablets, I find difficult to swallow, it did seem the solution, to finally fix my weak, soft finger nails, like an easy fix, gummies plus reduced, plus strong nails. As I don’t take any medication, I didn’t want to waste my money. In this TKMaxx, there is no signal on mobile phones, so I wasn’t able to check on line what collagen is, so I left it, after giving it much thought.

A few days ago, I mentioned it to my daughter Meghan, and having seen me ‘suffer’ with my nails over the years, she went and bought a bottle of 60 collagen tablets.

On the bottle it said, “Take two to five gummies a day.” That seemed a lot to me, and they wouldn’t last long. I wondered how much she had paid for them; I should have been happy but I wasn’t.  when I took the lid off, it was sealed, I didn’t remove the seal. I thought maybe I could take one a day or one a week, and maybe that would still make a small difference. I gave it a lot of thought.

I read the ingredients, it meant nothing to me, so I typed in the  side effects! I wished I hadn’t, but SO glad I did. I asked my brothers who are nurses and asked their advice. William said, “Processed food is bad for you, you need to change your diet.” Well, that’s not going to happen! He went on, “I would steer clear of them.” That was enough for me. I asked Meghan, “Please can you return them?” She wasn’t happy. Megan said, “I don’t know if I have a receipt, I paid for it with Apple pay.”

Megnan had told me which shop she had bought it from and that it had, “Cost, £20,” I was shocked, to think I could have had the same thing for £4!

I went to the shop and looked at other tablets for nails and saw, selenium. I hadn’t heard of that before. I felt hopeful.

I took a picture of it, and decided I would go and buy toothpaste from another shop first, then go to the health shop. In the shop for the toothpaste, I realized I had forgotten my bank card at home! I had renewed my car insurance, and had forgotten to put it back in my bag, I only had cash on me. At the health shop, in there I can get discount that is why I went there. The small bottle of selenium was £12 for 120 small tablets, it too was for vegans and vegetarians. I took pictures and sent it to Willian and asked, “What do you think of this, and the ingredients?” He quickly replied, “Eat more fruit and vegetables, don’t buy the bigger bottle.”

But because I didn’t have enough cash on me, I had to leave it. When I got home, I looked up information about it, it said, “Although Selenium is being used to prevent certain types of cancer, there is not enough information to show that this is effective.” I sent it to William, but I decided, it was Not for me!

I am so glad I didn’t have my card with me yesterday.

I have decided, I am OK as I am.