By Carolyn Cole
Published on May 29, 2008

Being normal teenagers is a dream for three Mustang sisters who face balloon-like blisters and wounds from the slightest scrape of their fragile skin.

Danielle, Casey and Elizabeth Seldomridge inherited dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa, a disease in which fibrils connecting skin layers aren’t strong enough or are too few in number.

This makes skin delicate, causing minor bumps and scrapes to tear away large areas of skin creating gaping, bleeding wounds or balloon-like blisters. The girls also develop blisters in their ears, mouths and throat, which can require surgeries to reopen passageways later in their lives.

EB is rare — Danielle, Casey and Elizabeth are among 12,000 Americans believed to have some form of the disorder. There is no cure, and few doctors have treated patients because it’s so uncommon. Those with EB become experts at treating their wounds — lancing and draining blisters and using ointments to prevent bandages from sticking and causing more damage.

While having the disorder is hard enough, 17-year-old Danielle said the stares and whispers from other students and people in public places are almost unbearable. Danielle has worked at a local restaurant for almost two years, and while her managers are now understanding about her disorder, some of her customers are not.

One customer called and told her manager he didn’t want to see Danielle in the restaurant, she said, but when her supervisor asked if he suggested the teenager be fired because of her disorder, the man hung up.

“Sometimes that’s what you have to do is make people feel stupid,” Danielle said.

Their mother Melissa Hammer, who also has EB, said she never wants the disorder to hold her daughters back, but sometimes it can’t be helped. Danielle regularly works 10-hour days, which causes large blisters on her feet and bursts open the skin on her elbows while cleaning and stocking the store.

Danielle said she watches over her 15-year-old sister Casey, who also works there. She said they have had problems with co-workers who think they are “faking it,” to get a lighter workload.

“Most of the things that happen to them, that they get hurt at, the other employees if it happens to them they don’t get hurt,” Melissa Hammer said.

Danielle rarely runs because she said she is afraid of falling, scraping all of the skin off of her hands and knees or causing huge blisters. While she played softball as a young child, Danielle said she can’t watch when either of her sisters play sports because she is so worried for them.

Thirteen-year-old Elizabeth said she knows being hurt is a chance she has to take to have fun. This school year she signed up for Mustang North Middle School’s cross-country team, but her parents took her out of the sport after she had problems with her asthma and her grades started to slip. Her EB did eat away at her speed, she said, because she couldn’t run full out in curves as she feared falling.

Facing her fear and the pain was worth it because she loves running, Elizabeth said.

“There is also the fun, feeling the wind in your hair, just feeling free ... it was exciting,” she said. “I got to meet a lot of new people.”

Casey gave up on basketball after a knee injury and joined the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps with the hopes of earning a scholarship for college. In her second year in the program, Casey reached the rank of staff sergeant and said she plans to stay in JROTC even though EB and her knee injury disqualify her for the scholarship. She said she has become more disciplined and learned more about survival and to how to manage her finances.

Hammer said she saw an immediate change in her daughter after she entered JROTC.

“It gave her more confidence,” she said. “She throws everything into it.”

Meanwhile older sister Danielle entered Canadian Valley Technology Center’s nursing program and is studying for her Certified Nursing Assistant test. Danielle has said she wants to become a dermatologist to help others facing skin disorders, while Casey plans to become a psychologist specializing in helping people with disabilities.

At first Elizabeth dreamed of joining the Air Force, which is impossible with her skin condition. She said she thinks she can settle for the Civil Air Corps, if they will accept her with EB.

Looking at her three daughters and seeing a shadow of the infants she comforted with knees bloodied from trying to crawl, Hammer said she’s proud of them.

“I think they have done pretty good for having all that they have gone through so far,” she said.

Being the “girl with scars,” is hard, Danielle said. When she was in elementary school, classmates pushed her on the asphalt to watch her bleed, she said, and her youngest sister is still facing bullying. Elizabeth said she’s grown a “tough skin” to people’s criticisms, and as long as her close friends stand up with her, she is happy.

“We just try our best and do the best we can,” she said. “We just take a chance.”