In Jeopardy

By now, you’ve heard: Alex Trebek has pancreatic cancer. I’m not taking the news well; this is a similar diagnosis that my friend, Puffy, received.

Puffy hadn’t been feeling well, so he went to a doctor to see what might be wrong. The news he got was devastating.

The doctor looked him straight in the eyes and said, “You have stage four pancreatic cancer. Get your estate in order. You will not survive this.” Unlike Alex Trebek, Puffy wasn’t able to fight this. The disease was too advanced. His diagnosis was in June of 2015, meaning he couldn’t make it to BotCon that year.

In three months, he was gone. Prime and I have a few of his Transformers: Prime has some of his Rodimus figures while I’m the caretaker of a few of his precious Bumblebees.

The toys remain with us. Puffy has long since gone. It’s an eerie feeling, and heartbreaking as well.

Alex Trebek sounds confident that he can beat this back, that he’ll beat the odds. I can only hope he’s right; the chances aren’t very good. The odds are stacked against him. Medical science has come a long way but we’re still all but helpless when it comes to this particular disease. An early diagnosis nets better results but even then, it’s no guarantee.

A diagnosis like Alex Trebek’s? Ten to one, you are dying. And I hate saying that.

I hope he’s right. I hope he truly can beat this thing back. I’m not ready to hear about cancer taking yet another life; far too many have died from this. He may be 78 years old, but he’s too young to leave.

Oh, and #FuckCancer. For multiple reasons.