Around the holiday season, one can look forward to turkey, ham, cranberry sauce, and stuffing.
But Leanne Yewer won’t be able to enjoy any festive foods this years.
Leanne suffers from a condition called Recessive Dystrophic Epidermolysis Bullosa. The name sounds long and scary, and the disease lives up to its name—it causes her throat to be so narrow that it could close and choke her at any time.
She was born with the condition. Not only does it make her throat close, but she also gets blisters all over the outside and inside of her body, including all along her tongue and throat.
“I was born with no skin on my right foot,” she said. “Now I get blisters over my whole body.”
She recounts that it first became a problem with eating when she was four, when her throat was so sore that she couldn’t even drink water without crying.
Leanne can’t even drink water without pain. She is terrified of eating food.
However, she won’t let that ruin her Christmas. She plans to spend it eating the one festive food she can—crepes.
“I’d give anything to be able to eat some crispy roast potatoes, they’re my favorite,” says Leanne. “I tried to eat some chicken a few months back and it got lodged in my throat, I couldn’t breathe. That definitely made my mind up about dodging Christmas dinner this year.”
However, crepe pancakes have somehow never been a problem for her.
“Pancakes are the one thing I trust, as they’re so soft and I’ve never had a problem eating them.”
In fact, pancakes are less harmful to her throat than even soup, or her own saliva.
Her condition has affected her entire life. She needs operations every four to six months to make sure her throat doesn’t close. The operations require using a balloon to stretch her throat, which is extremely painful and requires a month of recovery.
“I can’t find anyone to employ me due to the amount of time off I need for the operations and recovery period,” she says. She can’t put on weight, and is always covered in blisters.
However, she’s determined to enjoy her pancake dinner. “Despite having a pancake dinner on Christmas Day, I plan to not sit around and mope, but to enjoy my favorite time of year.”
