coming in late to this conversation but have to share. I took a really bad tumble off my son's bike a few years ago, broke my middle finger, ripped the nail completely off as well. All a week before hiking rim to rim of the Grand Canyon. My father who was 85 at the time looks at it and says "put a tampon shell over it" I cracked up but that is exactly what a did and it worked like a charm. It wasn't heavy, kept me from banging or bumping it when hiking and it was a pretty pink plastic of course, I had it taped on my finger so most people didn't know what it actually was.