Chronically Able

Kyrzia Parker joins Chronically Able to share what it has looked like to build a full life with disability, even when she did not always have examples of what that future could look like. As a lifelong wheelchair user with arthrogryposis multiplex congenita, Kyrzia opens up about growing up disabled, motherhood, partnership, leadership, internalized ableism, accessibility, and becoming the represe...

After years of living with a severe gastrointestinal motility disorder, medical dismissal, and being told she was “too young,” registered nurse Sara made the decision to undergo ileostomy surgery and choose her quality of life. Sara joins Chronically Able to talk about life with a stoma, ostomy body image, chronic illness, relationships, patient advocacy, and what it took to finally be believed. S...

What happens when the person you keep trying to become… is a version of yourself that no longer exists? In this episode of Chronically Able , we’re talking about the grief that can come with chronic illness, disability, and changing capacity, from “but I used to be able to…” to waiting to live your life until you’re “better.” We unpack identity, invisible grief, adaptation, and why doing things di...

What happens when you’re ambitious, driven, and disabled, and you’ve spent your life trying to prove what you’re capable of? In this episode of Chronically Able , we unpack the complicated relationship between disability, ambition, hustle culture, and the pressure to prove people wrong. From doctors placing limitations on our futures to feeling guilty for resting or needing accommodations, we ask:...

Disability Pride Month is more than a celebration, it is a reminder of the rights disabled people fought for, the barriers that still exist, and the future we are responsible for building. In this episode of Chronically Able , Elisa explores the disability rights movement, the activists who helped shape history, and the laws designed to protect disabled people in employment, education, housing, he...

After a short break from the podcast, I'm back with a personal check-in episode to reconnect with the Chronically Able community. In this episode, I share where I've been, what life has looked like lately while navigating chronic illness, graduate school, career transitions, and the realities of balancing it all as a one-person team. We talk about the pressure to always be productive, the...

What happens when your body is screaming for help… but nobody believes you? In this deeply raw episode of Chronically Able, Rylee opens up about growing up feeling dismissed, being told her symptoms were “all in her head,” and navigating the emotional trauma of medical gaslighting while living with invisible illness. After COVID worsened her condition, everyday life became a battle from losing ind...

In this episode of Chronically Able, Elisa sits down with Tori—a mom living with multiple complex chronic illnesses who has undergone over 60 surgeries while also raising two children with disabilities and chronic illnesses of their own. From being dismissed by doctors for years, labeled “lazy,” and constantly gaslit about her symptoms… to finally receiving life-changing diagnoses including Cystic...

This week’s episode of Chronically Able is a little different. Sometimes when you live with chronic illness, your body changes the plan. Deadlines, expectations, and schedules don’t always align with the realities of autoimmune disease, fatigue, or flare-ups. In this short episode, I talk honestly about what it means to live in a world that keeps moving while your body asks you to slow down. I als...

It’s Rare Disease Awareness Month, and most people don’t even know it. In this deeply personal episode of Chronically Able, Elisa records from a flare, laying in the dark, and shares what living with multiple rare autoimmune diseases actually looks like. She goes beyond just naming her diagnoses and explains what they do: •What Myasthenia Gravis is and how it affects muscle communication •How Syst...

What does “disabled” look like? In this episode of Chronically Able, Elisa unpacks the reality of living with invisible illness and why disability doesn’t have a single aesthetic, uniform, or visible marker. From parking lot judgment to medical dismissal, we explore what it means to look “fine” while managing chronic illness internally. Elisa shares personal reflections on autoimmune fluctuation,...

Some people don’t just shape your life, they shape the way you imagine your future. In this deeply personal episode of Chronically Able , Elisa sits down with her mentor Carrie: advocate, mother, Co-Founder of RISE, and one of the people who helped teach her how to dream beyond disability. Carrie once fought systems on behalf of others. Today, she is navigating stage 4 metastatic breast cancer whi...

Medical gaslighting doesn’t end when the appointment ends. It follows you home. In this episode of Chronically Able, Elisa shares the lifetime pattern of being dismissed, undiagnosed, rediagnosed, and forced to deteriorate before being taken seriously, from waiting 8 months for a childhood Myasthenia Gravis diagnosis, to years of untreated lupus symptoms that affected her kidneys, to the quiet war...

A raw conversation between me and my partner. Relationships get real when chronic illness is in the room. There’s guilt. Needing help. Canceling plans. Fear of being “too much.” And through it all there’s still love. In this episode, my girlfriend and I talk openly about what it’s like to love, support, and grow together while navigating chronic illness and the unknowns that come with it. We unpac...

Disability isn’t rare - but our systems still aren’t built for it. In this episode of Chronically Able, Elisa breaks down the structural failures that continue to harm disabled and chronically ill communities — from the lack of disability education in colleges and professional training, to medical gaslighting, institutional trauma, and the reality of being forced to perform your disability just to...

What if the “truths” we were taught about disability were never true at all? In this episode of Chronically Able, Elisa unpacks five common beliefs many disabled and chronically ill people internalize about access, accommodations, worth, and voice and reframes them through the lens of disability rights and justice, inspired by the legacy of Judith Heumann. This conversation explores disability as...

Hosted by me (Elisa), interviewed by my partner (Lily) I wasn’t supposed to start this. Not while healing. Not while scared. Not while still figuring it all out. But I did. And in this episode, my partner flips the mic and asks me the questions I don’t always say out loud—like where Chronically Able came from, what it cost to get here, and why I almost didn’t do it. We talk about: ​What made me hi...

My name is Elisa I am a disability advocate, nonprofit leader, marketing strategist, and MBA candidate living with multiple chronic illnesses since childhood. Through lived experience and professional expertise, my goal is to create a space for conversations that are empowering, validating, and unapologetically real. Chronically Able is a podcast and platform exploring life, identity, work, relati...