A sad prong song

I am notoriously hard on jewelry. I don't know why, but rings and I just don't seem to get along. I managed to crack the back of my birthstone ring twice in high school, and broke a couple of prongs on it as well.

When we got engaged, I made sure to get a super thick ring. I knew that I would crack the back of it if it was thin, so we got the thickest ring we could find. My super thick platinum engagement ring is flanked by two very thick gold wedding bands. I figured, no problem, all this thickness means it won't get broken!

Wrong.

While I haven't broken the shank (hallelujah), I have managed to break prongs. Multiple prongs. More than anyone else I know.

All was well, for a while. I wore my ring everyday, even slept in it, taking it off only for softball practice and games. It was fine. Then, I started coaching, and I began to have problems. I wasn't taking my ring of for practice or games anymore, because, well, I wasn't the one playing. I began to break prongs. First, the jeweler replaced the head of my ring with the biggest, thickest prongs they had. I managed to break those, too. Then they switched the gold prongs for platinum. You guessed it - those have broken, too.

It got to the point that Ricky forbid me from wearing my ring anymore. That was probably ok, since we also found that I'm allergic to it about the same time. I get a wonderful scaly rash under my ring. Recently, though, I tried wearing it again. I've been wearing it regularly for a few weeks now and, what do you know, I broke another prong.

When Ricky forbid me from wearing my ring, I began asking for a new one. Something with no prongs, like a bezel set or tension set ring, or even a pave setting. Then we learned about "blood diamonds" and decided we didn't want to invest in another diamond ring. I decided I wanted a blue topaz, the birthstone of December, our anniversary month. We didn't do it, though, because it seemed silly and frivolous to invest in a new wedding ring for me when mine is perfectly good, beautiful, and something I love.

But now, if I add up all the money we've spent fixing prongs on my ring, we could have very easily purchased one of these rings that I love
All this to say that I once again managed to break a prong. The price to fix it has gone up since the last time, and I won't have it back until Tuesday. Looks like it may be time for us to seriously consider something new. It seems silly to keep paying $30-45 each time I break a prong when, if I wear my ring regularly, I average at least one a year, usually more.

Oh, and the jeweler's advice? "Quit wearing it." Uh, ok. Maybe I should also be seeing a second opinion on that one!