Copyright © 2004 Seacoast Online.
By Associated Press

CAPE ELIZABETH, Maine - As she awaits next month’s arrival of her first child, Darcy Wakefield is battling a terminal illness she is convinced she will survive.

Wakefield, 34, was diagnosed nearly a year ago with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a progressive neurodegenerative disease that corrodes the nervous system until the body is completely paralyzed.

The expectant mother walks with leg braces or a cane. Her speech has thickened to a slur. And her right hand is faltering.

But Wakefield, a former English teacher, hasn’t let ALS slow her. Since her diagnosis, the Livermore native has written a book about her illness. And with friends and family, she founded a group called Girls Kick ALS.

A runner, Wakefield was training for the Beach to Beacon road race in Cape Elizabeth when she flew to Denver in June of last year to meet Steven Stout, a psychiatrist she met on the Internet. The two had bonded quickly through e-mails and phone calls.

Stout moved across the country to be with her, and they decided to have a child.

"Who," she says incredulously, "would’ve thought?"

While training for the race, her right leg would feel stiff and useless. And her right foot would go limp after some exercise.

Dr. John Belden, a neurologist, recognized that Wakefield’s "foot drop" is one of the first symptoms of ALS, but wouldn’t have expected to see it in a healthy young woman.

"I’ll diagnose ALS a few times a year and it’s typically in older individuals," he says.

After a battery of tests with a specialist in Massachusetts, Wakefield was diagnosed as having ALS.

After the initial shock and anger wore off, the old Darcy came back, friends say.

Wakefield took to talking about "the Darcy Wakefield anti-disease." She didn’t see why ALS was always called Lou Gehrig’s disease, after the legendary baseball player.

"I think I’m doing him a favor," she says now, laughing. "I’m sure he’d rather be remembered for his baseball."

Stout did not flinch at Wakefield’s diagnosis. In November, he and Wakefield purchased a cottage-style home in Cape Elizabeth, and Stout took a job at the outpatient psychiatry clinic at Maine Medical Center in Portland.

Both wanted children and contemplated adoption, "but the process is so long and I didn’t think that I’d be a very attractive candidate with ALS," Wakefield says.

ALS is not hereditary, and lab tests confirmed that a child born to Wakefield would not have a higher than average chance of getting the disease.

Doctors told her she could have a normal labor and delivery.

Within a month, Wakefield was pregnant, and couldn’t be more excited.

"Even if (ALS) stopped right now, I’m very high-functioning," Wakefield says. "I’m just really working hard to be positive about having a longer future and being around for this child."

Wakefield founded Girls Kick ALS! in February to heighten awareness about the disease and raise money for research and her medical bills.

After the turmoil of last year, life has settled into some regular rhythms. Wakefield keeps up her spirits by attending a monthly support group in Augusta. And she drives herself to biweekly acupuncture appointments.

But there also is much excitement on the horizon. An agent from the same firm that sold the best-seller "Tuesdays With Morrie," another book about ALS, is shopping around Wakefield’s book: "I Remember Running: Recollections of My First Year With ALS."

Wakefield hopes to find a publisher soon, but says that she still has one more chapter to write. Everybody wants to hear about the baby, after all.