I always intended to seek medical advice - but the original intent of my message was to establish whether "any one" had suffered the same problem using the picks as I looselty thought may be the problem.
Seems no one has - good - and I went to the Doc today and he reckons it is a case of nail dystrophy , a particular fungal condition which attacks the nail but seems to cover many subdivisions.
(For the UK readers)While I was waiting for the prescription to be made up, and being a bit bored - I looked around the Pharmasist shelves and noticed that there are a few creams to address this condition - but costing around £ 20 and more!!!
Jeez - why not talk to the Doc and the max we need to pay for the proper prescripted cream is £ 7.85 . Crazy or what.?
Keep your fingers crossed for me ( no distant pun intended)'cos most of you know that when playing and singing a song finger style, it can be difficult to reproduce by simply playing with a flat pick .
Cheers

Betsy