A lifelong habit!

I probably started to bite my nails as soon as I developed teeth :). I  heard the statement 'Stop biting your nails' more often than my name was called. Teachers, Parents, Grandparents, Aunties, Uncles, Friends and everyone who felt that it was their duty to correct me.

I thankfully did not have the various treatments that other people in my 'nail biting club' were subjected to. 'Nails coated with bitter leaf concoctions, nail hardener, pepper infused liquids and all other forms of torture aimed at stopping what was viewed as a bad habit. I was spared these treatments and all that I ever received were the long lectures of the harmful health effects of my 'bad' habit. The only time I saw my dad get upset with me was when I developed 'whitlow' on one of my fingers as a complication of my habit.

I started Medical School, soaking my fingers in the formalin saturated corpses and yet still I bit on. Even my physician parent's threats of my having multiple cases of diarrhoea after performing rectals did not deter me. Biting nails was my comfort zone, the only place that or activity that allowed me to zone out the world. It was my go to activity when I was nervous, when I needed to think or when I was writing exams and when I just wanted to be me! 

 The only respite came when I had become a doctor and was working as an intern at a Mission Hospital. My first posting was in the Surgery Unit and I started work in February which was the peak of the typhoid season. As the lowest ranking doc, I got my fair share of assisting my seniors repairing feces filled abdomens which had been perforated by the tyhpoid organism. The smell of the theatre rooms when the abdomens were sliced open by the scalpel is better imagined than smelled. I can still see those perforations- feculent material filling the abdominal cavity. My fingers ensconced in size 6 double gloves bore the full brunt of trying to help run the bowel or isolate segments of bowel that needed to be repaired. For 3 whole months I did not once put my fingers to my mouth. It was the first time that realized that I could kick the habit if I really wanted to.

My first week in another posting ended my resolve to abstain from onychophagic tendency. I forgot about stopping once I no longer had to daily dip my fingers in a feces bath. I had heard all sorts of things about my habit- It made me look ugly, I looked ridiculous, how could a doctor bite her nails, I would have kids who would bite their nails, I would not get married......... the reasons I was given were longer than a rap sheet of a notorious convict. And the truth be told, everyone of those pieces of advice rolled off like water off a duck's back.

Okay how did I stop biting my nails? It has been 5 months and counting and I have not resorted to once putting my fingers in my mouth. I got to go work in a refugee camp where there was a Hepatitis E outbreak. The main mode of transmission is feco-oral and I knew there was only one way to avoid coming back home infected. I could no longer bite my nails! That was it. I probably took my last nail meal while I was stepping off the plane but between then and now, I have not allowed myself a taste of my nails. I smile when I think of all the threats, comments and warnings over the years. It has been a long journey and hopefully it is one that would last. For now I am enjoying the thrills of being able to go for a manicure without the manicurist raising her eyebrows in horror and of course having myself some very nice nails to boot!






The beginning of the Journey!


Along the way!
Nice Nails if I may say so!
The end of the Journey!

 




Comments

  1. Anonymous10:42 PM

    Am not surprised we both share the same life-long struggle with Onycophagia. I would bite my nails so vigorously that they would bleed and I wouldn't be able to hold a pen to write in class out of sheer pain. I would go on dates and be so ashamed of my nails that I would keep my hands in my pocket throughout. I tried everything under the sun to curb the habbit; from wearing acrylic nails over my real nails, to soaking my fingers in poison to restrain me from biting them. If you can name it, I probably tried it, and nothing worked…until this…

    I had always been gap-toothed; having space between my upper front teeth(Incisors), and I had always wanted to get rid of it. I felt that being gap-toothed didn’t make me look masculine enough. Then in 2008, I finally had enough money to undergo the expensive dental procedure to close that gap. The dentist’s plan entailed shifting eight of my front teeth from their original positions to close the gap. That shift would end up changing my life forever! When the dental work was completed, I found that the movement of my teeth had caused for me to no longer be capable of biting my nails. My teeth had been shifted in such a way that sandwiching a nail between an upper and lower tooth to bite down on it was no longer possible.

    I paid a hefty USD$10,000 for that dental procedure, but you know what? I would have gladly paid double if I had known a priori that the procedure would help me “kill two birds with one stone". Now, I have a set of beautiful teeth with no gaps, in addition to handsome nails, after 30 long years of struggling. Eyin Oluwa Logo!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Fluffycutething4:06 AM

    Lol! Kudos to you and the 1st commenter

    ReplyDelete
  3. Fluffycutething4:09 AM

    Lol! Kudos to you and the 1st commenter

    ReplyDelete
  4. olaoluwatomi4:59 PM

    @Anonymous, thanks for sharing your story! That's an expensive way to stop the habit but I know the feeling of not biting makes up for it! Ogo folodumare :)
    @Fluffycutehing. thank you :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Adeoluwa - NBB1:31 AM

    Old habits die hard. Habits become a problem when they are bad. Thanks for sharing your stories.
    Adeoluwa

    ReplyDelete
  6. olaoluwatomi11:47 AM

    Thank you Anonymous and Adeoluwa!

    ReplyDelete

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