I may be crazy but I never take it off when swimming. The only time I really will take it off is if I using some type of chemical cleaner or something - or sometimes when I’m painting. It’s what I’ve done for over three decades!!!
Hey, if it works, it works! 
I don’t have much experience yet with this ring, but I’ve been wearing a family ring on my right ring finger for about 20 years. I take it off when I’m applying lotion or doing something with food that might get stuck underneath. It takes some effort to get it off, so I never worry about it falling off – just as I never remove my stud earrings when showering, swimming, etc. Knowing me, I am MUCH more likely to lose it when it is off. I have frequently had to look for it after putting on sunscreen.
Yes, most people I know who have lost their rings have taken them off before washing the dishes (and have them fall into the drain), or swimming and than had them lost somewhere, or when housecleaning and then lost it while clening. When I take a ring or other valuable off, I do my best to put it straignt into where I will be storing it–my dresser or the safety deposit box. I feel better about international travel NOT taking valuable jewelry when I travel and leaving it in the safety deposit box instead. Wearing the simple wedding band is sufficient for travel for me. Oh yea, any time I will be in the hospital, we also have me leave all jewelry at home, so don’t have to worry about it.
At times, my ring has been tighter or looser–it’s on the looser side again, since I appear to be losing weight with the fractured fibula, since it takes considerable energy walking with crutches. I am more comfortable wearing my engagement and wedding rings most of the time. H is happier just not wearing rings. It’s fine with me–whatever is most comfortable and safe. For a while, it was NOT safe for him to wear while working with cables and electronics anyway. Neither H nor I are much into jewelry, so it’s not a big deal for either of us.
In the winter my rings can get a little loose so when I get in the pool I switch them to different fingers. By the end of my workout my fingers are bigger again so I switch them back. In the summer, there is no way my rings would fall off my finger. I never take them off no matter what I’m doing.
I had surgery recently and the hospital wanted to take off my wedding ring. Can’t be done. I tried. I don’t think it’s cutting off my circulation, but it’s safe.
Can I say that there’s really no need to fuss over some minor flaw in a gem? Eg, natural emeralds are rarely perfect. You can often see that just by eye. You’d have to look through a loup to see most diamond flaws. The distinction is more for purists- and investors. And many antique rings have flawed diamonds or not perfect cuts, for several reasons. True, a perfect stone, perfectly cut, reflects differently. But most onlookers aren’t experts and the stone can still be beautiful.
Many mall stores are reputable. They’re in the mall for the visibility and traffic, some gave up their formerly exclusive locations.
My grandfather was also a jeweler (worked on his own) and griped about this and that (mostly tiny stones not fully faceted.). But today, all this is symbolic and you can go with your heart. A good marriage takes a lot of work.
Lje, maybe they’d like to use your stone but find their own setting. Best wishes, all.
I never got an engagement ring. He put a deposit on a sapphire and diamond wedding band for me (about $400) and then decided that was too much $$. We picked out a simple gold band with etching for me instead.
DH never wore a wedding ring. He lost his HS class ring and a ring from his grandfather, and felt that he’d play with the ring too much and lose it, and didn’t want to deal with the fallout from that. (Not that I would have given him grief – I lost my original band when it got too tight and had to wear it on my pinky.)
I think it bothered him that he’d backed out on the first ring, because for our 25th anniversary, he gave me the sapphire and diamond band. 
I need to get my current wedding band resized (it falls off of both ring fingers – I have gone from a 9 to 6.5), but it has Hebrew text all the way around it, and so I think I’d have to lose letters in order to do so. In the meantime, I wear it on my middle finger (and if that’s an editorial comment, I’m not sayin’ :)). My anniversary ring (7.5) also falls off.
I don’t mind minor flaws as long as the jeweler is truthful about them…filling fissures with substances making them appear clearer than they naturally are. I have heard that such stones could crack if exposed to various conditions.
Before my husband got my ring, I looked around and went to what might be considered a good local jeweler. I have background in the industry because I worked for a mom and pop type, home town jeweler.
I asked the sales man to show me some stones in the size and cut I liked. He brought out a diamond that had a very large crack…it wasn’t carbon, it wasn’t a fissure…it literally had a sliver of the stone broken off. I asked to look at it with a loupe. He told me the stone was very nice, well priced…etc. That was enough to turn me off of that store. He was trying to unload a severely flawed, defective stone.
I don’t like being lied to !
H and I went shopping in the diamond district in Manhattan.
@mathmom, have you tried the needle-and-thread approach (assuming you want to remove your ring)? You pass a threaded needle from your hand side to the distal side of the ring. Then wrap your finger (like you were doing a “hair wrap”) by going around and around it with the thread that originates from under your ring. This “finger corset” will contain your finger and allow the ring passage off of your finger.
^^^^^Per usual, I can’t understand written directions like that. I need to see the youtube video!
I could not follow those directions either! Got lost as after passing a threaded needle from the “hand side”….
When I was in the hospital last summer with sepsis, and was retaining a lot of fluid, my wedding ring got really tight, and I just wanted it off. I begged them to send someone from the ER to cut it off after my nurse tried and failed. They weren’t so quick to do that, but another nurse came in, and basically compressed my finger over and over again, getting some of the fluid out long enough so they could slip it off. It was sort of painful, and I kept telling them, please just cut it off, I don’t mind paying the jeweler to put it back together again, but they kept working at it until it came off (truth be told, it only took 3-4 minutes).
I’ve used soap, lotion on my finger, soaked my hand in cold water, and all of those at various times have helped me get my ring off my finger. Right now, it’s pretty loose on my finger and has no trouble easily slipping off my knuckle and off my finger. For me, my knuckle is the fattest part of my finger, so if it gets past that, everything else is easy.
I was way too thin when I was engaged. 26 years later, I’m wanting to lose weight. The last time I was able to get my ring off was when I did the prep for my colonoscopy. I’m kicking myself for putting it back on without re-sizing it!
My next colonoscopy is next October. Believe you me, I’ll be ready if I haven’t gotten it off before then.
Here’s an excellent YouTube video on how to remove a tight ring without cutting it off. It’s by some British healthcare providers & pretty interesting–using just elastic!
Yes, @HImom, that is the idea (or a variant, using tweezers instead of a needle). What I was describing is illustrated here:
Ah, but the video I posted uses elastic that helps further compress the finger and supposedly helps get it off better, quicker, etc. I haven’t used either method personally, but similar principles.
@CountingDown – for the ring that only needs to resize from a 7.5 to a 6.5, have you considered having the jeweler attach small metal balls inside the band? I was not along for the engagement ring shopping so the ring was too large. Fearing I would lose it, and not wanting to cut it perhaps realizing I would not always be the size I was when engaged, the jeweler had two small balls attached to the inside of the band on the bottom. The band is platinum but I don’t know if the balls were white gold or platinum or something else. The jeweler melted the metal with a blow torch, formed it into balls, and then attached each to the inside of the band. This worked well for the first dozen years or so and then I had them removed. I am once again the same weight I was when I married but perhaps my fingers are larger, as the ring stays on w/o the balls now. It is also worn out further as a third ring was added and the new one is way too large.
I was involved in selecting the wedding band and I went too far in the small size direction after wearing the too large engagement ring. Returned to the jeweler and he heated the ring, then placed it on this graduated pole that had ring sizes marked down the side. Gave it a few whacks, and it seemed to become a little larger. I remember being taken aback at the whacks, but the channel-set stones didn’t budge.
I take my rings off constantly…store them in a small bowl in the house, in my pockets when I wash my hands out in public…lost one of the three once at the zoo in Wash DC, but someone turned it in!!