Facing the Unexpected

At the age of just 33, Nick Winkler’s life took an unex­pect­ed turn. In late 2023, he received a can­cer diag­no­sis, throw­ing him into a bat­tle he nev­er imag­ined fac­ing at such a young age. 

Reflect­ing on the series of events lead­ing up to his diag­no­sis, Win­kler revis­its his life just a year pri­or. When he began expe­ri­enc­ing symp­toms, he ini­tial­ly brushed them off as mus­cle pain from his disc golf hob­by. Despite feel­ing the impact on his dai­ly life, he resist­ed seek­ing med­ical attention. 

“I’m not one to go to doc­tors. I toughed it out, hop­ing it would go away, but it nev­er did,” he said. 

As weeks and months passed, the dis­com­fort even­tu­al­ly esca­lat­ed to a point where a vis­it to the doc­tor became unavoid­able. He drove from his house in Han­cock Coun­ty, IL, to Quin­cy Med­ical Group (QMG) and QMG Now Urgent Care in Quin­cy, which led to a refer­ral to a specialist. 

Upon fur­ther eval­u­a­tion by Dr. Todd Pet­ty, QMG Gen­er­al Sur­geon, the real­i­ty of his con­di­tion unfold­ed. Win­kler feared he was fac­ing some­thing much more seri­ous than he expect­ed. Fol­low­ing a colonoscopy per­formed by Dr. Kar­tikeya Tri­pathi, QMG Gas­troen­terol­o­gist, he was diag­nosed with rec­tal cancer. 

“I was kind of resigned to it at that point,” Win­kler admit­ted. ​“It didn’t come as a huge shock because I knew we were look­ing at some­thing seri­ous, but I wasn’t sure what was ahead.” 

The next steps began quick­ly. With­in about a week, he under­went a bat­tery of tests includ­ing MRI, CT, and PET scans, which result­ed in a treat­ment plan begin­ning with radi­a­tion ther­a­py span­ning over 28 days. On March 11, 2024, he com­plet­ed the last ses­sion of this therapy. 

Despite encoun­ter­ing some side effects, Win­kler said the com­fort and sup­port he received made the expe­ri­ence a pos­i­tive one. His care team at the QMG Can­cer Insti­tute includes Dr. Daniel Fer­raro, Radi­a­tion Oncol­o­gist; Dr. M. Amjad Ali, Med­ical Oncologist/​Hematologist; and Nurse Prac­ti­tion­er Angela Duncan. 

“Since radi­a­tion, I’ve been feel­ing much bet­ter. Look­ing back just a year ago, I felt ter­ri­ble. Now, while I’m not per­fect by any means, I’m in a bet­ter place than before. I’m hold­ing on to that and remind­ing myself things keep get­ting bet­ter,” he said. 

Admit­ted­ly, over the past few months, Win­kler has had more med­ical appoint­ments than he has in the last two decades. The thing he avoid­ed the most has pro­vid­ed him with sup­port dur­ing a time he need­ed it most. 

“I’ve been to all sorts of hos­pi­tals for oth­er peo­ple over the years, but nev­er for myself. Every­one at QMG has been amaz­ing and made me feel com­fort­able. They said, ​‘We want every­thing for you to be okay. You are impor­tant first,’” he shared. 

As he pre­pares for the next phase of treat­ment, which involves triple-dose chemother­a­py, Win­kler admits to feel­ing appre­hen­sive. How­ev­er, he remains opti­mistic, draw­ing strength from the progress he has already made and the team stand­ing by him at QMG. 

“I’ve heard the hor­ror sto­ries of chemother­a­py, so nat­u­ral­ly, I’m ner­vous. How­ev­er, every­thing has gone well for me so far. So, my atti­tude is that every­thing is going to con­tin­ue to go well and, if not, I know I’m going to get through it and then I can put this all behind me,” he said. 

From this jour­ney, Win­kler has learned the impor­tance of pri­or­i­tiz­ing one’s health and encour­ages oth­ers not to delay seek­ing med­ical atten­tion and under­go­ing nec­es­sary health screen­ings, par­tic­u­lar­ly colonoscopies. 

“Don’t let fear get in the way. A colonoscopy is not near­ly as scary as they make them out to be,” he said. ​“Just go get a colonoscopy. Just do it. It’s a day and a half of work to make sure that you’re not going to have to go through some­thing like this.” 

Despite the chal­lenges that have come with his can­cer diag­no­sis, Win­kler remains hope­ful for the future, focus­ing on the progress achieved and find­ing moments of joy amidst adversity. 

“I’m look­ing for­ward to this year a lot more than last year. I’m not dread­ing the next steps just because the QMG has been so great, sup­port­ing me the whole way,” he said. 

For more infor­ma­tion on the Gas­troen­terol­o­gy team and ser­vices, click here. To sched­ule a screen­ing, call our team at (217) 222‑6550, ext. 3636.