As we age, our knuckle joints on one or more of our fingers may become swollen. It can be difficult to tell whether your symptoms are those of Rheumatoid arthritis or the more common “wear and tear” arthritis called osteoarthritis. Either way, this condition poses some difficulty in wearing your rings.
Similar to the picture of the engagement ring on the carrot, above, your wedding rings, can become impossible to remove as the area around it becomes swollen. Of course this can apply to your wedding band, diamond anniversary ring or other ring jewellery. Perhaps you can no longer wear your rings because it is impossible to get them over your knuckle. You may even force them on causing some pain and redness as you push the ring over the knuckle. To resolve this issue, the ring needs to be sized to comfortably fit your finger and get over the knuckle. Everyone wants to be able to remove their diamond engagement wedding set from time to time.
We found a gem of a story to illustrate the problem described above, in a CBC news article written August 15, 2017 about a diamond ring that was missing since 2004 and later showed up on this particular carrot some years later.
To summarize the story, it’s about a young woman named Mary who gets married and raises her family on her family’s farm. Her yellow gold, diamond engagement ring was beautiful and she wore it proudly every day. One day in 2004, while gardening, she discovered her ring was missing. She and her husband turned that garden upside down until she was sure that she had lost her wedding ring forever.
Fast forward 13 years later to 2017… same farm, same garden. This time, Colleen, Mary’s daughter-in-law, is plucking carrots out of the same garden. Colleen pulls a carrot from the ground and around the carrot is the yellow gold, diamond engagement ring that her mother-in-law lost 13 years earlier.
The image of the engagement ring is quite interesting because it looks like a carrot wearing a ring, similar to a finger. However, you can see the bulging areas around the ring that are enlarged. This image demonstrates how wearing a ring with enlarged knuckles can create a reaction in which the ring looks pinched and the skin around it looks irritated.
In the case of the carrot, we can just break the carrot to remove the ring. But in reality, we cannot break our fingers to remove a ring when knuckles become enlarged and the ring size stays constant.
To ensure that your diamond wedding rings can be removed easily, especially when a knuckle is enlarged, your jeweler can provide multiple solutions. In this particular circumstance, the jewelers ring cutter, along with a pair of pliers, should be used to cut the ring and safely remove it from the finger. The engagement ring or wedding bands, or any ring for that matter can then safely be resized thereafter.
If you or someone you know are finding that your wedding bands, engagement rings, or any other ring are unable to come off your fingers, come to Jeff Walters Jewelers where we will safely remove the them at no charge. Then we would be happy to review some solutions with you. Email Jeff or book online NOW, to arrange to have your rings professionally removed and give you options so that you can wear your rings comfortably and forever.