Tonight while making dinner, I cut my thumb nail with my knife. It's not horrible, but it's not something to celebrate either because it's in a painful place.

The knife cut through half the width of my fingernail. It's about a centimeter down from the top of the nail. It's not particularly deep, but it was bleeding through the break. I do think the knife hit the other side, but just barely. It doesn't look to me like I'm going to lose the nail at this point.

I was thinking that it's probably going to be a whole lot more painful when the break in the nail grows closer to the end of my finger.

I was thinking that it might be a good idea to put some crazy glue on top of the nail to create a kind of artificial bond, but my boyfriend thinks this is a terrible idea.

He says that crazy glue is made of harmful chemicals that can hurt the wound, and that if I put it on the nail, the wound underneath won't be able to breathe or heal properly.

I do a lot of work with my hands.

What would you do if you were me? Is the crazy glue idea bad? Do you think it would even work?

If you didn't have a cut in your skin I know people who use super glue but with the cut I would wait until the cut is not open any longer at least
Once it is not painful clip the nail back as much as possible and it should not be painful growing back to normal once the pain stops.

I agree, it won't hurt to wait until the cut heals somewhat below. You want the pressure below the nail to be relieved, otherwise it will be painfull.

Yep, learned the hard way a few times. Squish your fingernail and it hurts.
Head for a non-emergency medical aid unit or if your brave, heat a pin and puncture the nail. This is a lot easier than drilling your fingernail with a small drill on a drill press. I've done all three. You won't loose the nail this way and it won't hurt. I've seen blood shoot 10 feet (about 3 meters) though.

Use the Superglue Gel, it will fill small cracks. Superglue in anerobic, which means it cures when there is no Oxygen.

It will work for skin and it will work for nails.

Well, amazingly, the nail isn't turning black underneath, so it's not filling up with blood. There is some red blood through the crack, but it looks like it didn't do the damage it very well could have.

Honestly, by the looks of it, I am very, very lucky that I didn't cut the whole tip of my thumb off. I was using a huge knife - my favorite. Usually my knife skills are pretty good! Still, these things happen.

I know that I said crazy glue, but since I'm not in the states, it's really a brand that's just similar to it. It's pretty watery, which makes it a little harder to control.

I am very nervous about that pin/drilling idea. Maybe I won't need to do it since it's not black underneath? I have to say that it's much less painful than it could have been.

My big concern is that the crack in the nail will catch on something, like my clothing, and rip the piece back. THAT would be extremely painful and gross. The less I give it a chance to distort its shape, the better, so I hope I can use the glue asap... :(

Here is a little mor info as well as a bried discussion of the medical version of the glue: What is Cyanoacrylate Glue?

Here is some info on the Gel form of the glue.

3M US: Scotch Super Glue Gel

Use your nail file or some emery paper to smooth out the rough edges.

The Doc did release the pressure for me once. He had a cordless soldering iron like thing with a blunt tip.

Yikes, maybe you shouldn't be using your knives to trim your finger nails. Just kidding. Cutting yourself is the worst. Best to do it with a sharp knife though, right?