My advice is to do what you'd normally do if you had an open wound. I mean, I don't wear the gel-type nails (just the plastic ones you get at the drugstore--I do my own nails...most people can't tell), but if I get a nail ripped off and it starts bleeding, I put some neosporin (or some other antibacterial ointment) on it and cover it with a bandaid. Of course, I let it "breathe" at night. I only cover it during the day to avoid getting anything in it. Let it heal--it won't look pretty, but it won't get infected--and, when your manicurist gets back from Mexico, get it fixed. Depending on how fast you normally heal from things, it should be healed up by the time your manicurist gets back (unless she gets back tomorrow; then I'd say to wait about a week to get it fixed).

Also, an added bonus of keeping it covered with a bandaid during the day is that it doesn't look half so ugly as it would without the bandaid. At least then you seem to have a "legitimate" reason for not having a nail on whichever finger that matches the others. I just went through this--one of my nails popped off and took a good chunk of real nail with it, and I couldn't fix it because a) I was bleeding and had an open wound (nail glue + open wound = ouch), and b) the natural nail wasn't long enough to support a fake one (it had been taken back to about half its natural length). So I ran around with a bandaid wrapped around my finger for about two weeks (my natural nails grow really slowly--hence the fake ones) before I felt remotely comfortable putting a new nail on it.

Thank you. I have stopped hyperventilating now! And I am no longer planning horrible things for the dog. We have kissed and made up.

I am at about half my natural length too. Sounds like neosporin and bandaids for a while...

I can't believe how much that hurt, though. This may be enough for me to give up the nail thing. I am awed that you can do your own, I am barely coordinated enough to trim my nails...
;-)

It does hurt quite a bit, doesn't it? The first time I had one pop off like that, I was 16 or 17 and I was making my bed and accidentally smacked my fingertip against the wall and my nail came off. But that was when I was still getting my nails professionally done. (Ironically, my nails stay on better now than they did when I was getting them done professionally. I think it has to do with the type of nails I'm using now...The acrylic ones are pretty, but they don't stay on very well for me. Something to do with my body chemistry or something.)

:) It took a bit of practice to be able to do my own. And a lot of watching how the professionals do it. If you pay close enough attention to all the steps they go through, it's really not that hard to duplicate what they do at home. (I've even done the acrylic gel ones at home before, but those are a real pain in the ass, and, like I said, the acrylic ones have never done very well for me.)