Ah yes, the fingernail fun...I was lucky, I think, as I only developed dark horizontal lines across my nails and a deep horizontal crease across each thumbnail that I attributed to the induction treatment.  I was careful to keep any rough edges sanded off and both thumbnails broke off at the crease when it got to the end of the nailbed.  If you do a search on the old forum site, there have been some discussions about fingernails in the past, although I wasn't able to access all the old posts, which I suppose is why we have a new board now.  I know Helen had some issues with her nails, perhaps she will post here with her experiences.  Also the skin on my fingertips peeled following my first consolidation treatment and the fingertips themselves became very sensitive, especially to warm temperatures, like picking up a mug of tea.  Hang in there!

  Not only were my nails brittle and splitting, I actually nearly ripped off two by accident, ripped over 1/2 way down on one and 3/4 on the other.  Very painful.  The chemo nurse told me to start taking Vitamin B 12, and to use Udder Cream.  Yep, Udder Cream the same stuff they use on cows.  Found it at Walmart in the Pharmacy section, not where lotions are.  It's in a black & white jar (sort of like cow hide look).  It's cheap, about 3.00 a jar, and smells a bit (not nasty, more musty).

I put it on my nails hands and nails about 4 times a day, massaging well. And I quit using nail polish, and given two of my nails were ugly it was hard to do, I just put a band aid over them for work.  It probably took about a week and 1/2 before I actually could tell the difference, but they weren't as brittle or as dry.

We need to use lots of lotion on our body as well as the skin gets awfully dry as well.  I bought some pretty expensive lotion supposedly for cancer patients, but honestly it was no better than just using plain old Jergens lotion for extra dry skin.

Wearing gloves when doing dishes is helpful as the hot water seemed to make both the hands and the nails even more dry.

Ask your nurse about this to see if the Vitamin B 12 would be helpful, don't want to add something when taking chemo that could be harmful.  I was on Rituxan, Cytoxan, Vincristine & Prednisone if it helps to know which chemos.

Hope this will help you somewhat.  I realize it's hard to give up the nail polish for a while, but better than giving up the nails altogether.

PS Is your hair getting dry & brittle as well?  I was told to try to hold off on the washing it daily, and try to wash every 3rd day.  But I didn end up losing 1/2 of my hair (I was told I'd have heavy thinning) so the hairstyle sort of changed anyway.

Hope this information proves helpful to you.

By the way, I love your comment about Attitude being the mind's paintbrush.  That is something I'll remember and use next time I face a problem.

Dermatologists have known for a long time that artificial nails and also nail polish damages the fingernail and reduces oxygen supply to the fingernails.  Don't paint them.  I'm not sure about the chemicals in nail polish, but since having cancer I think my body has been exposed to enough chemicals so I have changed all of the products I use at home and on my body.

To moisturize your fingernails and help them heal, use plain old coconut oil - the kind you buy from the grocery store (I get Spectrum brand).  Use a small amount and let it warm in the palm of your hand when it then becomes liquid.  Massage it into your nails.  Coconut oil also works great as a skin moisturizer and facial moisturizer, even for oily skin.  It is in the long run a lot cheaper than the kind of products all of us are used to using.

My fingernails are naturally quite thin and split easily.  I had the same problem as you and used a fingernail sandpaper file to keep any edges smooth.  A bandaid if tissue is sore or bleeding would be appropriate, but change it every day.  Time is the healer and your fingernails will grow out again and be beautiful again.  Eating well during this period and taking an over the counter supplement called Biotin is helpful.  It shows improvement in about 50% of users and dermatologists recommend at least trying it.  It also helps hair regrowth.