CALGARY ? On the night of Sept. 15, 2012, Jim and Judy Wilkie were having a rare disagreement.
?He wanted to stay,? says the 62-year-old Calgary native. ?He was in a lot of pain and I knew he was only hanging on for me.?
The next evening, Wilkie?s husband of 44 years closed his eyes for the last time, his passing a peaceful conclusion to years of severe discomfort and deterioration from the myriad complications that can accompany Type 2 diabetes.
Before he died, though, Jim had made sure he left a legacy for the world, one in which he gave a graphic, no-holds-barred depiction of what it was like to live, and die, with the disease. With the help of his wife, who videotaped their sessions together, the two created hours worth of video so that others might learn from his ordeal.
?Diabetes is an epidemic, there are many more families that will find themselves in our situation,? says Wilkie of Type 2 diabetes, which currently afflicts more than three million Canadians, a number expected to rise to 3.7 million by 2020. ?Someone has to speak up about what it?s like to go through this.?
Type 1 diabetes, most commonly diagnosed in people before age 30, is due to the pancreas not being able to produce insulin. It is not preventable, and its cause is still unknown.
Type 2 diabetes, on the other hand, is largely blamed on a sedentary lifestyle, bad nutrition and smoking. Numerous studies have shown that by increasing physical activity, keeping a healthy weight and eating well, many of the symptoms can either be prevented entirely or managed.
The explosion in obesity rates in North America have resulted in more than 26 million people, an increasing number of them under the age of 45, being diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes.
Jim Wilkie wasn?t obese; he didn?t smoke and rarely drank alcohol. What the nearly 20-year employee of the Coca-Cola Company?s Calgary bottling plant did do was rely on soda pop to keep him fuelled throughout the day; frequent stops to fast-food restaurants were also part of his daily routine.
?That was our demise,? says Judy Wilkie of the all-too-common combination of sugary soda drinks and prepared foods. ?There is too much fructose and sugar everywhere, it?s one of the big reasons why there are so many more people today being diagnosed.?
His last years of struggle were in stark contrast to the vibrant life Jim Wilkie lived for 66 years.
?He was such a beautiful person, so full of heart and energy,? says Wilkie of the man she fell in love with when she was just 16 years old.
Jim, who was 20, was in the military and had just moved to Calgary from Nova Scotia to train at Canadian Forces Base Calgary (the base was closed in 1998). The pair met at a house party just a few blocks from the base as he was preparing for a tour in Cyprus.
?From that moment on, we were in our own world together,? says Judy, adding that they eloped to Moscow, Idaho, when she turned 18. ?My parents wanted me to marry a lawyer, not a soldier,? she says with a chuckle.
The young couple settled in southwest Calgary, where Judy juggled a successful catering business with raising two active boys.
When he wasn?t busy with his job at Coca-Cola, Jim played football with his boys and golf with his best friends. Son Bob took to the game of hockey, playing for the Detroit Red Wings and Philadelphia Flyers.
?We had the ultimate lifestyle,? says Judy of those years. ?Life was so good.?
Things began to change as Jim entered his mid-50s. He started feeling lethargic, experiencing occasional numbness in his feet. At his wife?s urging, he finally went to a doctor. ?It?s such a silent disease, so internal,? says Judy. ?The doctor told him he had high blood pressure and that the diabetes had already done a lot of damage.?
Over the next decade, Jim?s condition would steadily worsen. After years of infections and mobility issues, he woke up one morning to find his left foot had turned black. ?He had a toe and a piece of foot amputated,? says Judy.
That crisis would be followed by ever more serious ones. He had his right leg amputated just below the knee; his condition was also resulting in troubles with both his eyesight and hearing.
?Then his kidneys gave out,? says Judy, who then accepted the offer by their son Bob to move her and Jim into the country home he shared with his wife and two kids. ?He needed dialysis three times a week.?
Spending the past two years in their eldest son?s home, with a view of the Rockies and everyday contact with the grandkids, says Judy, ?was the greatest gift we could have received.?
This past August, Jim?s condition worsened to the point he had to be hospitalized. ?We decided to start videotaping his story,? she says.
Once she gets through her first Christmas without her beloved husband, Judy says she plans to start a non-profit organization called Sweet Ripple of Change, with a website that will include a blog, information on resources for diabetics and Jim?s final videos.
?Our experience will be lived by millions of people,? she says of the videos that include heartbreaking descriptions by her husband about the trauma of losing a limb.
?I hope we can create the same kind of awareness about diabetes as others have done about smoking.?
vfortney@calgaryherald.comTwitter.com/ValFortney
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