Three Little Birds: jewelry

I have an autoimmune disease called Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS)...yeah, say that 5 times fast! One of the symptoms of the disease is blood pooling in my extremities. I especially swell in my hands and fingers...so the heat from the HOT Florida summers makes it worse!

I know a lot of people experience swelling in the fingers during the summer time, so I thought I'd share a trick I learned from a local jeweler in Destin.

Do your fingers swell to the point of not being able to comfortably remove your rings?

Mine do!! I would nervously try to remove my rings at night knowing that they probably wouldn't come off. & if I gave up in the middle of the struggle, they would get stuck and be painful. So in a panic, I'd run my fingers in cold water & soap pulling and tugging.

A few months ago, Husband and I went to our local jeweler in Destin (McCaskill & Company) to pick up his new wedding band (long, sad story behind it...but McCaskill helped us find a perfect David Yurman for Hubby). Of course, as any woman in a jewelry store does, I wanted to try on some rings of my own. Sadly, it was hot day and I couldn't remove my ring...not even for cleaning! The nice man looked very concerned and asked if I'd thought of having my rings re-sized. (I have and don't want to...it's really just a swelling issue...why put my shiny ring through torture?) I explained to him my condition and the fact that it'll never go away.

So the lovely man at the store let me in on a jeweler's secret for getting rings & off swollen (or too big) fingers...

Today's swelling...some days are so bad

it starts hurting. This is minimal for today's heat.

Ready for it?

WINDEX!

Yes, Windex. I know...what?! He grabbed a bottle from beneath their counter, spritzed my finger & low and behold...the ring slid right off.

I asked the questions you are probably asking yourself...

Will this hurt my ring? No. In fact, it is much better than using water & soap, lotion, veggie oil (you never know...).

Is this bad for my skin? It could be...don't douse your hand in Windex & wash your hands after. Simple as that.

Does it help get your rings on? Yes! On & off!

It works so well, I now keep a Windex Touch Ups on my bathroom counter. I use it for taking off my rings & it's handy for quickly wiping down surfaces in my bathroom. You can find coupons for the Windex Touch Ups often.