Marcus Wendling pulled out a semi-iron-excellent triathlon consisting of 1.2 miles swimming, a 56 miles wheel and a 13.1 miles running in less than six hours.
He believed that the competition in May 2023 was his biggest physical challenge -until he was diagnosed with rectum cancer at a stage of 3 months later at the age of 47.
“I eat a healthy diet. I have been exercising six days a week. I’ve always been at the top of my health,” said Wendling, who lives in Dayton, Ohio, in front of The Post. “So until then you feel like this feeling of invincibility.”
Marcus Wendling pulled a triathlon consisting of 1.2 miles swimming, a 56-mile wheel and a run of 13.1 miles in May 2023. With the kind assistance of Marcus Wenling,
Rectum cancer is becoming increasingly common in people under 50 – although doctors are not exactly sure why. Wendling hopes that sharing his story encourages others to seek medical attention if something looks careless, so they don’t face a painful battle.
The father of three, who owns a small manufacturing company, was startled to see blood in his stool in the first months of 2023. He had no other symptoms.
“I have never had a medical problem or diagnosis,” Vedling said, now 48 years old.
“I went for complete physical and everything – all blood work and numbers – it turned out to be great,” he added, “but I said that a doctor in Dayton, I said,” Hey, I have to get a colonoscopy. I see blood in my chair, “and that led to colonoscopy in November 2023.”
It was the first wendling colonoscopy. Just when he was 45 years old in 2021, the special US preventive services group reduced the recommended age to start screening from 50 to 45 for adults at medium risk.
Vendling has no family history of colorectal cancer and does not experience symptoms, so it seemed no reason to have one at the time.
Vendling (left) noticed blood in his chair, prompting his doctor to order a colonoscopy. With the kind assistance of Marcus Wenling,
When his doctor ordered him in the fall of 2023, he was understandably nervous.
Biopsy revealed a benign polyp in its colon. A large polyp was removed from his lower rectum – he tests positively for cancer.
“I went through various tests over the next three months,” Vedeling recalled. “There was an attempt to remove the rest of the fabric through a minimally invasive procedure and that was unsuccessful.”
Due to the location of the tumor, Wendling needed a lower front resection.
Vendling was diagnosed with rectum cancer at stage 3 at the age of 47. With the kind assistance of Marcus Wendling,
The five-hour surgery, which involves the removal of part of the rectum and re-attaching the rest of the healthy part in the colon, was performed in March 2024 at the Center for Cancer of the State University of Ohio-Pain for James Cancer.
Three of the 12 lymph nodes, removed during surgery, tested positively, so that the rectal wendling cancer was declared stage 3.
As if it weren’t bad enough, he had a muddy hospital stay. He raised a fever that turned out to be a small leak at a surgical site, which took four to five weeks to resolve.
“Marcus had a few bumps on the way to recovery, as can happen with treatment, but overall he did great,” said Dr. Matthew Kaladi, Windling’s surgeon at OSUCCC-James, in front of The Post. “He is physically fit and has a great attitude that definitely helps.”
“Marcus had a few irregularities on the way to recovery, as can happen with treatment, but overall he did great,” says Dr. Matthew Kaladi, a surgeon of Vendling.
Vendling has undergone 12 weeks chemotherapy with minimal side effects and is accustomed to living with an ileostomy bag, a bag that collects waste.
“I managed with him, running with him,” Vendling said.
Finally, he threw away the bag in September 2024 – and things seemed to be back to normal around Thanksgiving.
“Marcus was smart, taking ownership of his health and evaluating his symptoms early,” Kaladi said. “The key to healing colorectal cancer is to find it and heal it early before it spreads. His decision to get a colonoscopy probably saved his life early.”
Vendling has undergone surgery and chemotherapy, and now life is almost normal. With the kind assistance of Marcus Wenling,
Wendling should have three -month -old breast scans and abdominal areas and annual colonoscopies so far, but the news has been good so far.
“I feel like I was very active with it,” Vedeling said. “So # 1 I would say is, try to stay on top of your overall health because you never know when you will encounter something like that.”
He even returned to the workouts for half iron.
He will be on the starting line in Florida next month to launch a new chapter on his trip.
“The goal # 1 is to finish,” Vendling said. “The goal # 2 is to beat my time from 2023 – it’s kind of like a book closing last year.”