After 11 months of aggressive treatment that included chemotherapy, radiation and multiple surgeries, Tedeschi was declared cancer-free.
Last week, Trebek, the 78-year-old longtime host of Jeopardy, revealed he had stage 4 pancreatic cancer, and that the prognosis was ‘not very encouraging’.
Tedeschi told Florida Today that she began experiencing back pain in 2011. She tried epidurals, muscle relaxers and acupuncture, but nothing worked.
Tedeschi said that despite the grim odds she was given – just nine months to live – she was determined to fight.
‘The decision to fight was an easy one, because there was no way that I was leaving my little boys and no way that anyone else was going to marry my husband!’ she wrote.
Tedeschi wrote that she went through 12 rounds of chemotherapy, 25 rounds of radiation with a 24-hour chemotherapy pump, and multiple surgeries.
One of the procedures, done in November 2012, she underwent a minimally invasive procedure known as a NanoKnife, which delivers high-voltage electrical pulses to the tumor.
‘This procedure is supposed to poke holes in all the cells and essentially they die and dissolve in your body over time,’ she wrote on the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network website.
Trebek revealed in a video message posted on the YouTube page of Jeopardy! last week of his diagnosis.
She says she maintained a positive outlook because she ‘didn’t choose to get cancer…but I do get to choose my attitude’. Pictured: Tedeschi with her sons after she came home from the hospital.