A Little Breathing Space

There’s usually no good news after a diagnosis of ALS, but Cindi Dunckel, 44, has found a little respite thanks to Pilates.

- Cindi Dunckel, as told to Beth Johnson

I miss moving. It’s been two years since I was first diagnosed with ALS, and so much has changed. I’m no longer able to move my legs and am now 100 percent wheelchair-bound. My arms are also growing weaker. I can still brush my teeth and scratch my face, but flipping a light switch, or reaching a water faucet, is difficult. Eating has become a chore. My family dresses me, and my daughter bathes me.

This huge change has been especially difficult because I always was such an active, sporty person. As one of six kids growing up in Bellevue, NE, I was always on the move. I played soccer and was on my high school’s volleyball and track teams, and even the dance and pom-pom squad, the Belvidettes!

After graduating from high school in 1990, I worked and went to the local community college—and at a school party, I met my future husband, Keith. We hit it off right away. He was an athlete, like me, and we had a lot of fun together. He played baseball at a nearby college and soon thereafter, was recruited as a pitcher in the Midwest League, for the San Diego Padres AA team.

A FULL LIFE

We got married in 1995, while living in Des Moines, IA, and after that, we moved a lot, following Keith's career in the tire industry, going from California to Tennessee to Oklahoma and finally to Topeka, KS. I’d been told that I wouldn’t be able to have kids because I had endometriosis. But within a year of getting married, I had my first son, Brooks, 19! Our daughter Savanah is 17, and our youngest, Satchal Paige (named after the great baseball player) is 12. Going from thinking I might never have kids to having three was such a blessing.