What happens when your body unravels right as your calling takes shape? Myra joins us to share a raw, thoughtful journey through Sjögren’s syndrome—years of nausea, fatigue, and brain fog; “normal” test results; a job she couldn’t keep; and the long search for a clinician who would truly listen. The turning point came through a rigorous, personalized routine: consistent sleep and meals, hydration, targeted nutrition, and medical massage, plus simple, whole-food cooking and careful sourcing. It wasn’t a miracle fix. It was a slow, stubborn climb back to stability, one boundary at a time.

We talk about the faith side without pretending it’s tidy. Myra grieved a theater career that once felt like a mission field, wrestled with anger toward God, and learned to separate identity from productivity. Her prayer life looks like a daily walk—naming joys, doubts, and fears to a God who already knows. Beauty becomes a practice: plants that ask for water, art on the walls, short walks, and small rituals that remind her life is still good. She explains why organic choices mattered to her sensitive system and how freezing leftovers curbed flares. And she gets practical about church: believe invisible symptoms, listen to understand, offer specific help, and don’t take cancellations personally.

If you live with chronic illness—or love someone who does—you’ll find language for the lonely parts and tools for the day-to-day: routines that reduce the noise, boundaries that protect energy, and habits that restore dignity. Stay to the end for Myra’s original poem from the darkest stretch of her illness, a quiet testament to despair, rest, and fragile hope. If this conversation resonates, subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who need

• FREE sticker holiday giveaway:
  • Follow CWCI on your streaming platform
  • Rate CWCI on your streaming platform
  • Fill out this google form:
    https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSddXxtoWeyQWC6Pped3TEwaGsAecNEusR2aLKVmaCtKMWHoiQ/viewform?usp=header
  • Get a FREE sticker with FREE shipping in the new year!
    (Must be within the first 100 and complete by January 1st to apply.)

Christians With Chronic Illnesses' episodes will release every 2nd and 4th Sunday! We hope to interview more of you as we are able. Your followings, ratings, and subscriptions keep this show going, so THANK YOU! Stay tuned for further announcements.

• https://www.patreon.com/c/CWCIpodcast
• https://www.buzzsprout.com/2552643/support

Support the show

• Share your story: [email protected]
• Contribute towards the production of Christians With Chronic Illnesses and the encouragement of ill believers:
  • https://www.patreon.com/c/CWCIpodcast
  • https://www.buzzsprout.com/2552643/support
• Follow us:
  • Facebook:
    Christians With Chronic Illnesses
  • TikTok, IG, X, Threads, Twitch, & YouTube:
    @CWCIPodcast
  • Discord Support Group
    https://discord.gg/ZaWMkbGSty
• FREE sticker holiday giveaway:
  • Follow CWCI on your streaming platform
  • Rate CWCI on your streaming platform
  • Fill out this google form:
    https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSddXxtoWeyQWC6Pped3TEwaGsAecNEusR2aLKVmaCtKMWHoiQ/viewform?usp=header
  • Get a FREE sticker with FREE shipping in the new year!
    (Must be within the first 100 and complete by January 1st to apply.)

A chance hello by a riverside turned into a testimony of courage. Meet Carol Fitzsimmons, "Dory"—former teacher, award-winning swimmer, kidney transplant recipient—whose life was reshaped by a friend who said yes to donating and a faith that would not let go. From teenage fatigue and a frightening diagnosis of chronic glomerulonephritis to late‑night home dialysis and the moment a colleague offered her kidney, this is a journey where medicine meets miracle and community turns pain into purpose.

We walk through the realities most people never hear about: why transplants are treatment rather than cure, how anti‑rejection meds can create new challenges, and what long‑term care looks like for chronic kidney disease. Dory is honest about grief—the loss of her infant son, a marriage that unraveled under stress, and stepping away from a career she loved. She also shares the spark that pulled her forward: discovering the Transplant Games, training in the pool, and finding a global family of recipients, living donors, and donor families who understand the cost and the gift of a second chance.

If you’ve wondered how to support someone with chronic illness, Dory offers clear, compassionate guidance: listen without fixing, encourage consistently, and pray specifically. And if you’ve ever considered organ donation, you’ll learn how one decision can save up to eight lives, restore sight to two, and enhance dozens more through tissue donation. We talk practical steps for registering, why telling your family matters, and how faith, movement, and community keep hope alive on the hardest days.

Subscribe for more stories from Christians living with chronic illness, share this episode with someone who needs hope, and leave a review to h

• FREE sticker holiday giveaway:
  • Follow CWCI on your streaming platform
  • Rate CWCI on your streaming platform
  • Fill out this google form:
    https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSddXxtoWeyQWC6Pped3TEwaGsAecNEusR2aLKVmaCtKMWHoiQ/viewform?usp=header
  • Get a FREE sticker with FREE shipping in the new year!
    (Must be within the first 100 and complete by January 1st to apply.)

Christians With Chronic Illnesses' episodes will release every 2nd and 4th Sunday! We hope to interview more of you as we are able. Your followings, ratings, and subscriptions keep this show going, so THANK YOU! Stay tuned for further announcements.

• https://www.patreon.com/c/CWCIpodcast
• https://www.buzzsprout.com/2552643/support

Support the show

• Share your story: [email protected]
• Contribute towards the production of Christians With Chronic Illnesses and the encouragement of ill believers:
  • https://www.patreon.com/c/CWCIpodcast
  • https://www.buzzsprout.com/2552643/support
• Follow us:
  • Facebook:
    Christians With Chronic Illnesses
  • TikTok, IG, X, Threads, Twitch, & YouTube:
    @CWCIPodcast
  • Discord Support Group
    https://discord.gg/ZaWMkbGSty
• FREE sticker holiday giveaway:
  • Follow CWCI on your streaming platform
  • Rate CWCI on your streaming platform
  • Fill out this google form:
    https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSddXxtoWeyQWC6Pped3TEwaGsAecNEusR2aLKVmaCtKMWHoiQ/viewform?usp=header
  • Get a FREE sticker with FREE shipping in the new year!
    (Must be within the first 100 and complete by January 1st to apply.)

A baffling itch with no rash led to a dermatologist’s double take: yellow eyes, yellow skin, and a blocked bile duct. That moment set Keith on an unexpected path through scans, biopsies, and a terrifying possibility—bile duct cancer—before a lung biopsy brought clarity: sarcoidosis. What he shares next is more than a medical play-by-play; it’s a grounded, hopeful look at how faith, gratitude, and practical habits can steady a life turned upside down by chronic illness.

We dig into the realities of sarcoidosis across organs—the liver damage from cholestasis, scarring on the heart wall and rhythm risks, eye inflammation that blurred his vision, and the heavy fatigue that reshapes daily limits. Keith walks through his treatment plan with honesty: prednisone’s spike in blood sugar and emergency-level readings, tapering off steroids, adding mycophenolate for organ health, and finding relief with Humira. He pairs medicine with real-world adjustments—protein-forward meals, low-sugar swaps, gentler routines, stress reduction, and small movement—showing how layered care can calm a flare.

Parenting while sick demanded age-appropriate transparency, not perfection. Keith opened his patient portal and told his kids the truth early, which kept fear from growing in silence and taught them how to advocate for their own health. He also started a local autoimmune and chronic illness group, proving that community doesn’t need a crowd to matter; sometimes two people in a room is exactly enough. Through it all, he returns to the same image: throw a stone into water, watch the ripples, and wait for the surface to settle. Pain can tower for a season, but the water can still grow calm.

If you’re navigating a new diagnosis, managing sarcoido

• FREE sticker holiday giveaway:
  • Follow CWCI on your streaming platform
  • Rate CWCI on your streaming platform
  • Fill out this google form:
    https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSddXxtoWeyQWC6Pped3TEwaGsAecNEusR2aLKVmaCtKMWHoiQ/viewform?usp=header
  • Get a FREE sticker with FREE shipping in the new year!
    (Must be within the first 100 and complete by January 1st to apply.)

Christians With Chronic Illnesses' episodes will release every 2nd and 4th Sunday! We hope to interview more of you as we are able. Your followings, ratings, and subscriptions keep this show going, so THANK YOU! Stay tuned for further announcements.

• https://www.patreon.com/c/CWCIpodcast
• https://www.buzzsprout.com/2552643/support

Support the show

• Share your story: [email protected]
• Contribute towards the production of Christians With Chronic Illnesses and the encouragement of ill believers:
  • https://www.patreon.com/c/CWCIpodcast
  • https://www.buzzsprout.com/2552643/support
• Follow us:
  • Facebook:
    Christians With Chronic Illnesses
  • TikTok, IG, X, Threads, Twitch, & YouTube:
    @CWCIPodcast
  • Discord Support Group
    https://discord.gg/ZaWMkbGSty
• FREE sticker holiday giveaway:
  • Follow CWCI on your streaming platform
  • Rate CWCI on your streaming platform
  • Fill out this google form:
    https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSddXxtoWeyQWC6Pped3TEwaGsAecNEusR2aLKVmaCtKMWHoiQ/viewform?usp=header
  • Get a FREE sticker with FREE shipping in the new year!
    (Must be within the first 100 and complete by January 1st to apply.)

Welcome to Christians With Chronic Illnesses, the podcast that magnifies the voices of chronically ill brothers and sisters to inspirit their health journeys and their faith. Get to know your host L. A. Sprague. She is a Jesus loving POTSie who enjoys her husband, Paul, people, plants, whales, the color green, and pizza. She aspires to create a community for believers with long-term and terminal illnesses and educate their loves ones, the church, and people associated with them. CWCI hopes you feel loved, seen, and known as you listen. We also hope you will join the community by following, joining our Discord and Facebook groups, and interviewing on the podcast. We would love to hear from you via email and our socials! Please follow and rate to share the word with fellow sick Christians.

• FREE sticker holiday giveaway:
  • Follow CWCI on your streaming platform
  • Rate CWCI on your streaming platform
  • Fill out this google form:
    https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSddXxtoWeyQWC6Pped3TEwaGsAecNEusR2aLKVmaCtKMWHoiQ/viewform?usp=header
  • Get a FREE sticker with FREE shipping in the new year!
    (Must be within the first 100 and complete by January 1st to apply.)

• https://www.patreon.com/c/CWCIpodcast
• https://www.buzzsprout.com/2552643/support

Support the show

• Share your story: [email protected]
• Contribute towards the production of Christians With Chronic Illnesses and the encouragement of ill believers:
  • https://www.patreon.com/c/CWCIpodcast
  • https://www.buzzsprout.com/2552643/support
• Follow us:
  • Facebook:
    Christians With Chronic Illnesses
  • TikTok, IG, X, Threads, Twitch, & YouTube:
    @CWCIPodcast
  • Discord Support Group
    https://discord.gg/ZaWMkbGSty
• FREE sticker holiday giveaway:
  • Follow CWCI on your streaming platform
  • Rate CWCI on your streaming platform
  • Fill out this google form:
    https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSddXxtoWeyQWC6Pped3TEwaGsAecNEusR2aLKVmaCtKMWHoiQ/viewform?usp=header
  • Get a FREE sticker with FREE shipping in the new year!
    (Must be within the first 100 and complete by January 1st to apply.)

Christians With Chronic Illnesses (CWCI) is the podcast that magnifies the voices of chronically ill brothers and sisters to inspirit their health journeys and their faith.

The first episode of CWCI premiers November 30, 2025.

Feel known by God and inspired by interviewees on this CWCI teaser as they speak on their diagnoses, symptoms, and truths about God and living as Christians with incurable sicknesses. Some sicknesses include leukemia, Sjogren's, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (me/cfs), Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS), Bipolar (BPD 1, BPD 2), Hashimoto's, Lupus, Mast Cell Activation Syndrome, and more. Each person interviewed is honest about their faith in Jesus, their hellish bouts of pain, and struggles with health. Being truly resilient believers, they remind themselves of God's truths and scriptures from the Bible even amidst flare ups and have been courageous enough to share them with you.

“Soaring” - Dan Phillipson

Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):

https://uppbeat.io/t/dan-phillipson/soaring

License code: 4QGOIX5EUFUQA4P0

Support the show

• Share your story: [email protected]
• Contribute towards the production of Christians With Chronic Illnesses and the encouragement of ill believers:
  • https://www.patreon.com/c/CWCIpodcast
  • https://www.buzzsprout.com/2552643/support
• Follow us:
  • Facebook:
    Christians With Chronic Illnesses
  • TikTok, IG, X, Threads, Twitch, & YouTube:
    @CWCIPodcast
  • Discord Support Group
    https://discord.gg/ZaWMkbGSty
• FREE sticker holiday giveaway:
  • Follow CWCI on your streaming platform
  • Rate CWCI on your streaming platform
  • Fill out this google form:
    https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSddXxtoWeyQWC6Pped3TEwaGsAecNEusR2aLKVmaCtKMWHoiQ/viewform?usp=header
  • Get a FREE sticker with FREE shipping in the new year!
    (Must be within the first 100 and complete by January 1st to apply.)