Deborah Beebe is a 63-year-old woman living in Rochester, New York. At 14 years old, after contracting mono virus, she was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, a chronic inflammatory bowel disease. Most people are not diagnosed with the condition until their late teens or early twenties, but the mono virus weakened her immune system, leading to the early emergence of disease symptoms.
In the nearly 50 years since her diagnosis, Beebe has undergone 23 operations, including an ileostomy and the complete removal of her colon. She has since reversed the ileostomy due to her discomfort using the ostomy pouching system, but had a PICC line inserted in her chest to administer fluids and medications into her system.
Due to the severity of her illness, Beebe has been on permanent disability since 1991. As she’s grown older, the symptoms of her illness have worsened, and her digestive issues and inability to maintain or put on weight have caused her to struggle with body image issues and drastically alter the way she dresses.
On how her chronic condition impacts her everyday life:
“I feel like I’m a slave to the bathroom. Anytime I go somewhere, anywhere, I don’t eat any food or drink. If I’m going to go do something, if I go for dinner, I usually just eat a couple of bites and take the rest home and eat it there. So I always have to be mindful of that. Even when walking my dog, I can’t go too far because if I have to go, it’s like I have to go. I don’t have 10 minutes to wait.”
On how her chronic condition affects her body image:
“My body image is terrible. I’m way too thin, and I look like I’m anorexic. It’s hard. I have an issue with food and eating. Everything I do revolves around what I’m going to do that day and whether I’m going somewhere. Now that’s my normal thought process. It’s automatic.”
On how her chronic condition impacts her dress practices:
“I think I’m embarrassed to be seen, really, so I try to wear baggier clothes so my body doesn’t show as much. I had this guy at Wegmans once scream at me and call me an ‘anorexic bitch’ because I took a parking spot he wanted.”
“My abdomen is very painful to the touch. If you touch the right corner of my stomach, I’ll yell out because it hurts so much. So I have to be conscious of that when I’m getting dressed, and I can’t have anything too tight across my stomach.”
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