The Great Ezcema Battle

If you've known our family for any length of time, you know that we've been battling Eczema with Lucy for two years now.  In that time, we have seen her pediatrician and dermatologist numerous times (in fact, we have seen the physician's assistant at her dermatologist's office 4 times in the last month and a half and we go back again on the 1st).  At her last appointment, the dermatologist told me that "experts" (whoever they may be) say that the quality of life for families dealing with Eczema as severe as Lucy's is comparable to living with a child who has severe autism.  A year ago, I would have called him crazy.  Now, I kinda get what he means.  The past 6 months (the point at which things started getting really bad) have been exhausting.  I've read so many conflicting things, have spent so much money on different lotions, creams, and bath treatments, just trying to find something that works.  I worry constantly about overexposing Lucy to corticosteroids, and if she is becoming immune to their effects, or dependent on them. 

These are all prescriptions we've gotten since the beginning of May.  I kid you not.  Actually, there's one more.  I forgot she has a prescription now for Q-dryl, which I believe is a stronger form of Benedryl for her to take at night.  Thank goodness for health insurance, right?
Unfortunately, health insurance does not cover the cost of OTC moisturizers.  Of course the good ones are pretty expensive.  I am very happy with a new product Curel came out with; we've been using it for the past month and it is definitely the best OTC treatment we've used. 

This is their new Ceramide treatment.  Ceramide is supposed to be really good for your skin because it helps your skin heal itself.  We did use the Cera Ve which I liked too but the Curel kind has petrolatum in it, making it thicker.  I know petrolatum (think Vaseline) is really not that great when you think about what it is, but unfortunately, I have yet to find an "all natural" product that does as good a job.  The other plus to the Curel is it's about $4 cheaper than the Cera Ve and when you're buying at least one tub a month, it helps to try and save a bit of money.  Curel is in no way paying for me to endorse them (maybe I should work on that....) but I highly recommend this product for anyone who is dealing with really dry skin or Eczema. 
Anyway, the past few weeks we've been doing a treatment that I think is working pretty well.  It's called wet-wrapping.  Our dermatologist used it with patients when he interned at the Mayo Clinic.  Basically, we apply Lucy's steroid cream, then her moisturizer and wrap her up in towels that have been soaked in water and then wrung out.  Then she sits like that for 20-30 minutes.  To fully cover her arms, we use some old socks of Walker's.  We do this twice a day.  I'm glad it's summer and she actually has time to sit like that for an hour every day!

Here she is all wrapped up (with a waterproof sheet protector wrapped around her towel so the chair doesn't get soaked).  You can see her face looks pretty bad here (definitely not the worse it's been!) and so I want to ask how we can possibly do the same technique with her face.  I don't know if we'll have to continue the wet wrapping twice a day or if her derm. will want to bump it down to once a day.  I do know we will need to take a break from the steroid soon here.  She's been on a steroid cream for almost the last month straight.  It's really hard when we take her off them.  She immediately flares back up and is just miserable.  She scratches her neck and head in her sleep and her eyes are always puffy from rubbing them so much.  Lucy is such a happy little girl and it breaks my heart on those days when we can't do anything but lather her up in moisturizer and hope that it's enough. 
I've been praying for a long time that Lucy will outgrow this; I know many kids do.  I asked our derm. if he thought she would and all he would say is "it's possible."  He didn't look very hopeful though. 
And some days I get really down about all of this but I try to remind myself that there are others who have it much worse.  I have found incredible support on the National Eczema Association's website.  They have a lot of information and a forum where people share their stories and things that have worked (or didn't work) for them.
I'm not really sure the point of this post; maybe I'm trying to share some information, support for others who are going through this, or maybe I'm just needing to vent a little. 
I don't really know what everything will look like in the future; I guess I'm just hopeful that no matter what, Lucy is happy and that she will have the strength to deal with this no matter how bad it gets.