My latest Prosthetic victory!

Yikes! Already March 5th! I just realized tonight that I posted less than a handful of times in February.  Now that's a little sad.  I guess I focus on my other blog so much and creating the image I want for my some day actual business, that I forget about this one.  And I've honestly been so busy with Girl Scout Cookie Sales, I have little time left for a personal blog. But I've wanted to share something exciting for awhile.  So I made some time! :)

If you are a prosthetic wearer, or you know one, you know that every day is a victory in and of itself.  I did a post awhile back about my leg.    I talked about wanting toe nails that we could paint.  I went to Walmart and bought some regular acrylic toe nails. 

I did it like you would do any other acrylic nail.  I held up the closest size to the "real" nail.  I shaped, filed and sanded those nails like mad! It was a challenge for sure.  The toes are laid almost side ways on the prosthetic foot.  The more I look at it, the weirder I think it looks.  But its better than nothing. 

Yes, this picture probably looks familiar.  I was so excited to put the nails on, I forgot to take a true before picture! :) But, here is the foot I have before I put the nails on it.  It gets really scuffed and dirty (even in my sock and shoe) so I just wash up the foot shell with a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser and then wipe it down with a Clorox wipe just because that's who I am.

Ta-Da! One foot shell with realish looking toe nails. Hell, lets be honest, these look better than most real toenails! And of course these can be painted.  And with the right remover they can be repainted. 

Some tips I have for anyone else wanting to do this would be: make sure you clip and sand in small increments.  I had to completely reshape the last 3 nails.  The foot shell nail was nothing like the acrylic shape.  So just do this in small steps. I also cut it much shorter.  I made sure there was no way to catch the acrylic on a sock or something and rip the nail off.  Also, the instructions say to only use a few drops of the glue.  I gobbed it on.  I used the included stick to clean off any extra as soon as I pressed the nail down.  I tried to hold them down with my finger and took extra care to try not to let them bend - even slightly.  Because any slight opposite bend created these whitish lines. And if you used the stick to press them down you will get these same white lines.  They are hard to see to the naked eye and you can not really tell looking down when I have the leg one, but of course I know they are there, and so I can really tell :)

I hope this helps someone (if they haven't already done this!) and I will try to remember to update how they do against wear and polish and the like! Here's hoping for some sandal weather soon!