NORMAN — Cindy Dougherty used to sleep all day. Her life had turned into a depressing list of medications, dialysis appointments, surgeries and constant health concerns.

At 41, newly widowed, legally blind and in a wheelchair, she forgot what it was like to feel good. The future looked worse than the past.

She remembered how she once enjoyed working with weights when she was younger. She played volleyball at Norman High School and came to the YMCA for league competition. But the years passed and took a toll.

She wondered what she could do to regain independence and strength, and she prayed it wasn’t too late.

Dougherty was a teenager when she learned she was an insulin dependent diabetic. She said she didn’t pay attention to all the cautions, dietary restrictions and medical advice given to people with diabetes.

“It took me 20 years to get where I was,” Dougherty said. “People get bitter, they think their life is over, and I was there. I was as sick as anybody could be.”

Two years ago, Dougherty started dialysis. She said she knew she had renal failure. The effort to get to the dialysis appointment, go through the nearly four hours of treatment and struggle to get back home left her exhausted.

“Everything I did was a lot of work to live,” she said. “And not just for me. It was work for everyone around me. I live with my mother, and she had to do everything.”

Dougherty’s husband helped her until he became ill, was hospitalized for months and died in May 2011 at age 57.

He was with her in August 2008, when she realized she was blind.

“I woke up one morning and I couldn’t see anything,” Dougherty said. “I thought I was still asleep, and I jumped out of bed, walked five steps and fell down. There was no light. Nothing.”

Cookies vs. asparagus: During dialysis treatments, a nurse who always seemed to be cheerful and happy inspired Dougherty.

“There isn’t much joy in the dialysis area,” she said. “He was always in a good mood and full of energy. I asked him where he worked out, and I told him I wanted to lift weights.”

He told her about the Cleveland County Family YMCA. In February 2011, Cindy Dougherty arrived in her wheelchair on a day that was the beginning of a new life.

The membership was more than she could afford, and she qualified for a scholarship program available at the YMCA, where the areas of focus are youth development, healthy living and social responsibility.

Through the YMCA programs, Dougherty began the road to healthy living through exercise and a healthy diet.

She said it is cheaper to eat cookies than asparagus, but she has made the changes she needs to restore what she has lost.

And the results of her efforts are so amazing that many people who knew her before don’t recognize her.

Cindy Dougherty is 70 pounds lighter, she is walking and she has decreased her insulin intake by 80 percent. The daily regimen of 13 pills is reduced to five. She no longer has to go out to a clinic several days a week for dialysis because her improved health allows her to undergo peritoneal dialysis at home. It is less invasive and exhausting than the previous treatments.

As strange as it may seem, Dougherty said she is even glad to feel pain. Two years ago, she fell and broke a leg and her ankle, but had no feeling due to lack of circulation.

She said the environment at the Y — where she participates in Zumba, yoga, weight training, swimming and walking — is relaxed and friendly.

A Zumba class follows a rare, favorite meal of refried beans and enchiladas.

Fun has come back into her life.

“It’s a lot harder to be crippled than to get up and go exercise,” she said. “I walk out the door like a normal person. I believe in the power of prayer, and I am so thankful.”

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