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Funderburks set to welcome first child after Alicia’s cancer diagnosis during pregnancy
Kody and Alicia Funderburk were excited to find out last September that they were expecting their first child. But when a test result early during pregnancy came back abnormal, that excitement became tinged with fear as the couple spent the following months searching for answers.
Eventually, they finally got one: Alicia was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in January, starting chemotherapy right before TwinsFest. Had Alicia not become pregnant when she did, there’s no telling how long it might have taken to detect the cancer.
“Yeah, this sucks, but we do have a lot of positives to be thankful for, and I think that’s really what you lean into when something like this is going on,” Kody said.
Alicia quickly began chemotherapy, which was halted as she neared her due date. The Twins reliever will be placed on the paternity list for the upcoming series against the Mets with Alicia set to be induced on Monday. Weeks after Baby Funderburk is born, Alicia will resume treatment.
While there was a worry that the test results could come back as breast cancer, which runs in Alicia’s family, Kody said the doctors were all optimistic from the beginning with this diagnosis.
“We caught it early enough. It was just more about ‘OK, what do we need to do?’ ” he said. “Kind of like how baseball is, you kind of get to your process ‘OK, what’s next?’ ‘OK, go execute that.’ ‘What’s next?’ “OK, let’s do that.’ And every step of the way, our doctors and team were super supportive and compassionate. Never once did we ever feel like this was going to get out of hand or anything like that.”
The Funderburks decided to go public with their story earlier this week and have received an outpouring of support from Twins fans since then. The support he’s gotten from within the clubhouse, too, for the past few months has allowed Funderburk to come to work and “stay level-headed and be excited about baseball.”
It also helped him this spring when he headed to Fort Myers, Florida, for six weeks while Alicia stayed back in the Twin Cities undergoing treatment, often alone.
“It’s absolutely amazing what she’s gone through,” he said. “I think that’s freakin’ badass that she’s strong enough and tough enough to go do it on her own and take care of the two dogs at the house and be by herself going through it. A lot of props to her.”
Though manager Derek Shelton and pitching coach Pete Maki told Funderburk he could fly home if needed, Alicia was doing well, and the couple decided it would be best for him to stay in camp as he prepared for the season.
Through it, Shelton has marveled at the energy and positivity Funderburk has brought to the ballpark despite everything that is happening at home.
“The consistency that he has on a daily basis, I think, shows how grounded he is and how rooted he is,” Shelton said. “He’s handled it unbelievably well.”
Now, after the surprise of the cancer diagnosis, the couple is finally ready to meet their baby — and for another big surprise: Per Alicia’s request, they decided to wait until birth to find out whether they would be welcoming a boy or girl.
“There’s not really any anxiousness,” Kody said. “I think I’m more excited to have my first child, and obviously the pregnancy wasn’t exactly how we were expecting, so I’m kind of ready to get past that and welcome the baby and then get my wife back on treatment.”
