Mesh Changes in Edit Mode not Showing/Saving in Object Mode

Hello all,
I’m working with a rigged model someone made for me in Blender, and I need to stretch some of the mesh, especially for the claws of this creature. I went into edit mode and moved the mesh around to stretch it out a bit. However, when I tab back into Object mode, all the changes I make do not show up and the claws are short again. Is there a solution to this? Someone posted about removing shape keys, but this is not an option, because I need my shape keys, and I don’t see why they would affect how I’m moving around the mesh. (Unless I need to turn them “off” but I don’t know how to do that either).

Here is the picture of my problems:
http://orig03.deviantart.net/14af/f/2017/054/4/0/untitled_by_drowelfmorwen-db050ob.jpg

It’s something I want to play with on my own but cannot figure out. Any help appreciated, thanks! Also, please be really clear in any solutions because there is a lot about blender I still do not know (I’m only good with painting and posing already-made objects).

EDIT: So I went back into my file after saving and after tinkering around with other stuff, I realized the changes DID save… I don’t know how, but suddenly they were showing up in Object mode after all! O_o Weird… I’m not sure what I did…