Cancer Set Me Free: A Story of Purpose, Legacy, and Survival with Glenn Sturm

In this powerful episode of Shine On Success, host Dionne Malush sits down with Glenn Sturm, a lawyer, veteran, entrepreneur, pilot, astrophotographer, cancer survivor, and bestselling author whose story redefines what it means to live with purpose. After receiving an incurable cancer diagnosis, Glenn made a decision that changed everything: cancer would not become his identity. Instead, it became a turning point that led him toward writing, photography, legacy, service, and a deeper understanding of what success truly means.

Through honest reflections on resilience, multidisciplinary cancer care, family, faith, dogs, legacy, and the importance of taking responsibility for your own life, Glenn shares a message that is both deeply personal and universally inspiring. This conversation is a reminder that adversity does not have to shrink your life. It can open the door to more meaning, more impact, and a stronger commitment to helping others along the way.

Connect with Glenn here:

Website: https://glennsturm.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/glenn-sturm-32726455/

Transcript

Welcome And Glenn’s Many Lives

SPEAKER_02 0:02

Welcome to Shine On Success, where we talk with people who have walked through hard things, rebuilt their lives, and turned their story into something that helps others. Today I'm sitting with Glenn Stern. Glenn has lived what feels like several lifetimes in one. He is a lawyer, veteran, thank you for your service, entrepreneur, pilot, astrophotographer, cancer survivor, and best-selling author. 16 years ago, he was diagnosed with incurable cancer. And that moment changed the way he looked at success, purpose, time, and legacy. Instead of letting that diagnosis define the end of his story, Glenn used it as a turning point. He went from courtrooms and boardrooms to capturing the stars, writing books, creating art, and helping people understand what it really means to keep going when life gives you a reason to stop. His work includes Cancer Set Me Free, Warriors Hate War, and his photography series, Psygiz. I think I said that right. His personal mantra says a lot about him. Sturms never quit. Glenn, I'm honored to have you here. How are you doing today?

SPEAKER_01 1:02

Never better. It's a beautiful day in Wyoming.

SPEAKER_02 1:06

We're here in Pittsburgh and it's actually pretty nice here too. It's not very warm, but it's sunshine and which is amazing. So we love that. So

The Dogs Who Knew First

SPEAKER_02 1:12

let me ask you my first question, which I always try to open with. What is one thing you want people to know about you that's not in your bio?

SPEAKER_01 1:18

That's a good question. Thing that's yeah, most people don't know is I've got two golden retrievers who are my best friends. And uh they uh the amazing thing about it is how insightful they are, how they know what's going on, how they uh anticipate things. I got really sick one time last year, and my dogs knew I was sick before I did. And uh yeah, I ended up with a spine tumor that had to be removed. And uh yeah, but yeah, it's just the way it goes. But they they're just wonderful. It's uh Budsen and Lulu, and Budson was the eighth puppy born on Christmas Day, and Lulu was born on June 14th, which is uh Clyde Gate. Yeah, Cladgate, but it's also the Army United States Army's birthday.

SPEAKER_02 1:56

Oh, that is so interesting. How cool. I love that.

SPEAKER_01 1:59

So it's you know, it's just coming from an army family, it's a that's a like the perfect thing. And and Lulu, as it's appropriate, uh she picked out blitzen out of a different litter. And um yeah, she w hopped in the in the litter box and p pulled him out um when she was about seven months old, six months old.

SPEAKER_02 2:18

So and I love Tristan's having blitzen's a great name. I love that. I have two dogs too, two little wiener dogs there. And I they are the loves of my life. I love them dearly. Yeah, I can see I I you said that. So how did they know you were sick? What did they do?

SPEAKER_01 2:31

How did you know they were well they they um started putting their faces on the like they put their head on my arm and I was sitting down, and the other one would put their head on my leg and just they I'm like, What's wrong? What you know, what what's the matter was what I was always worried about. And there was nothing that mattered, they were just knew it. But when I went, I was hospitalized and um actually flown out on a helicopter, this kind of problem. And when I came back after 10 days, I sat down on a bench outside my front door and they ran out and were excited and were both started crying because they thought I was gone. And uh

Family Lessons From Puppy Love

SPEAKER_01 3:05

I I've got I've got one other dog story about my dad that uh who's he was a heck of a guy, but it it yeah, I was able to use it recently. My dad was a uh was an army officer, uh, World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. But before Vietnam started, he was uh sitting there and in a meeting, briefing the chief of staff of the army and a major civilian dignitary. And my mom called him, said that my dog had died that morning, and I was in third grade. And my dad excused himself from the meeting and came home, picked me up, because he knew my my dog was sick, took me home and bought me another puppy. Took me home, made sure everything was okay, and then went back to work. Well, from that point on, I knew my um dad loved me for the rest of my life and uh the rest of his too. But other thing is my daughter's son, who was now six, when he was born, they had a dog that was 11 years old, and he died last year. I called my daughter to go immediately get him another dog. And my daughter just kind of said, No, Dad. So I found a rescue dog was identical to one they had lost. And I called her back up and she said, Dad, we're gonna wait a little while. And I said, Beth, let me tell you a story. I told her the story. I said, You have an opportunity to make a memory for lifetime. Please do. And she did. And yeah, she did. And she's told me a couple of times that it was the best advice I'd ever given her. That's something nobody else knows about. I've never I've never written about that or anything else and never talked about it, but but it was a you can imagine the guy who started in the army as a private in the infantry hall of fame at Ford Bank, uh, leaving a meeting with the Secretary of Defense to go get a puppy for his son.

SPEAKER_02 4:35

Wow, that's beautiful. I have a good dog story, you want to hear it? Yeah. So my husband had a liver transplant a year and one month ago, and two weeks before, he said, You want to go for this ride? And I go, I want to go to this fishing event that's up in two hours away. And I said, Okay, sure. Because I knew it was not feeling good. And I for him to want to do something meant something. So we take it to he pulls into this house. I'm like, what are we doing here? He goes, I have to pick up this trailer. You want to come in? I'm like, No, I don't want to come in. He goes, No, no, come in with me. And I'm like, All right. So I walk in and there's three little puppies there. So he goes, That little one there, that's our new puppy. And I'm like, Oh my god, you're having a transplant in two weeks. What are we gonna do, right? Because I'm gonna have to be at the hospital every day. And he's like, It's okay, we're gonna we're gonna get her. So we ended up bringing her home and he told me while we were riding. He goes, I'm not sure if I'm gonna make it through this, so I want you to have something that's yours. And so we'd already had a dog at home. He was nine years old. So he we bring her home, and then we decide on the name Mercy because he was at Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh for most of the 18 weeks straight for getting some treatment done. And so we named her Mercy, and Glenn, she is truly the love of my life. So she came and when I needed her most, we had such a hard time, like because we I wasn't here, but my mom lived here, so she took care of her. So he literally bought me the dog. Surprised me. I had zero idea, none at all. I was shocked and stunned, and she is so beautiful. And she is sitting right there sleeping on the couch. She's always with me. And it was, it's a it's don't stories are the best.

SPEAKER_01 5:58

Well, my two golden are around here somewhere, they normally sleep on the sofa.

SPEAKER_02 6:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:01

Um yeah, so but god, they may have walked outside anyway. I mean, it you know, the the great line, may I be the person my dog thinks I am? Yeah, is something that I love.

SPEAKER_02 6:12

Yeah, I love the idea that uh dog is God spelled backwards, just saying. So that's pretty cool.

The Diagnosis And The Wambulance Rule

SPEAKER_02 6:18

So when you when you first got the cancer diagnosis, was there a moment where you realized that my life can either shrink because of this or it can become more it can become more honest because of this?

SPEAKER_01 6:27

Well, yeah, I mean you you know, first off, I got a phone call at the airport on my way to give a speech. And you know, and so it was in shock. But that weekend I came back to Wyoming because it was a normal weekend to go. And then the following weekend I made a special trip out. And I got off the plane, go down the steps first, first went off the plane, and I hit black ice. I slid and I heard my loud pop and bounced off the uh concrete on the tarmac. And I was on the ground saying, Oh my gosh, what else do I have to deal with? And something came to me immediately at that point. And it was a phrase that my daughter used to me after she'd had her first car wreck, and I think the only one, but her first one, she said, Dad, the wambulance is gone, because I wasn't giving up on reminding her that cars are expensive and stuff. So I was sitting there on the tarmac saying, Glenn, the wambulance is gone. Get up, get your ass moving. You know, it's time to make something of this. Between that and an article I read, I said, I will not let cancer define me. So what I tell everybody now is my cancer stays in New Haven, Connecticut, where Yale is, where's I go for treatment, sphilo cancer center, and I leave it there. And uh I try to always leave it there. And you know, it's always not possible. Sometimes things come up, but if you if you have make the decision not to let cancer be your logo, your whatever, that you're gonna just it's something to deal with. It's kind of like living in Wyoming, you don't have state income tax, and it takes me about you know 10% of my month to deal with my cancer stuff. Well, most states have an income tax that high. So this is just my tax. And so, you know, get over it. I can't change it. So one of the phrases I use all the time is we must all give up hope for a better yesterday. I can't change that part of my life, but I can change the

Redefining Success As Daily Service

SPEAKER_01 8:03

future.

SPEAKER_02 8:03

So before you had that diagnosis, how did you define success before that?

SPEAKER_01 8:07

No, you know, that's kind of interesting. I never really thought about that. I was successful. I was an army, I was an army officer and did real well. Got out of the military, stayed in the reserve, but got out of the active military and went into business, got four promotions in two years, ended up running the southwest United States for a Fortune 100, kind of crazy out there so fast. I quit that, went to law school, finished top of my class, made partner tiers out of law school, was the chairman of my firm five years out of law school. I mean, I didn't think about success. I just thought about just thought about doing things and solving problems. I love solving problems. You know, it it it's our mission statement that we created when I was running the place was that we provide creative business solutions to complex problems and add value in the process. The word law is not in that. Okay. We're just problem solvers. We just, if you had a problem, if it was legal, we'd take care of it, of course. But if you had another problem we found out about and it was a client, uh, we could see if we could help fix it. That was success to me was solving problems, helping create wealth for people, helping, you know, solve uh catastrophic issues, or in one case, a um, in my case, uh, a son who's a great student didn't get in the university wanted. And um, I found contacts to go see the uh president of that university. And I was seeing several. I was a trustee at my university at the time. And I said, look at this guy's thing. What could he do better? What could he do to get in the school he wants to go to? Not saying that this is his school. He said, This kid should get in everywhere. And anyway, he ended up getting in there because of that. Yeah, he did. They reversed the the original finding. But the point was it was a problem to solve. And whenever you're able to help other people by solving problems for them, it's just amazing how your life changes. One of my daily requirements is I have to put a smile on somebody's face every day. Do something to make somebody happy. Now, when it's when we got you know a foot an hour of snow coming down in Jackson, Wyoming, it's kind of hard to see another person. So those are the days I try to deal with somebody on a call center, you know, because you know, I've got always got to call somebody out when you get those verse responses and things. You talk to a person and you get them to laugh, and that makes their day better. So that's success to me. The other thing that is a is a foundational element of the businesses we've got is that I ask all employees to ask themselves the following question on the way home from work every day. What did I do today to make somebody's job easier or their life better? Yeah, so if you do that, it changes the dynamic of the whole institution. It changes you. Uh it makes you a person that people want to be around. You're not doing it to, you know, to create wealth for yourself, you're doing it because you're a good person. And once you start doing that, people will start believing you more, trusting you more, and walking. Now, a lot of times you do put a smile on somebody's face because there's, you know, you're in the Chick-fil-A line that's got 50 people and you pay the person's thing behind you, or you just leave a big tip. They're not used to that happening. It and it doesn't cost anything or not anything material, like you know, three or four dollars, but it it changes things for puts a smile on their face, makes their life better. So those that's how I define success. What have I done to help somebody else every day?

SPEAKER_02 11:09

So for me, my goal is to expect affect someone's day in a positive way every single day. So I've been saying that for a long time, but now it's kind of the same as the smile, right? Now I feel like I have I have less time, so I need to make more impact. So now I need to affect more than one person every day. And so that's what I try and giving this podcast and realizing that people go through things no matter who you are, right? We all have things, it's just how we push through to get to the other side.

Cancer Set Me Free Into Art

SPEAKER_02 11:32

So when you look at yourself and you say, What did cancer set you free from? Because here's that word, most people don't do what you did.

SPEAKER_01 11:39

Once you once you decided you're not gonna let it define you, well, the insurance companies were all I was working doing billion-dollar transactions and the malpractice insurance carriers were freaking out because was I gonna miss something? Because the liability, if I missed something, was terrible. So I, you know, it I was basically you know put on disability and and forcibly retired. And so I was working an average of probably 14 hours most day between representing my clients, yeah, business development, you know, and administrative things. It was a lot of work, but I loved doing it, but I didn't know what I was missing, and so when I when it was gone, it was gone instantaneously. You know, I you know, I had a choice. What was it, what was I gonna do with it? You know, I I just basically said, well, I started writing on my carrying bridge blog about it, and I came up with these things about trying to help others and other people, and my carrying bridge blog became more and more important to me. So I wrote two or three times a week. And the reason I started out doing that was I didn't want to explain to everybody what was wrong. I didn't want to talk about cancer. And when people asked her how you feel, that's not a question, it's a greeting, and uh, they really don't want to know. So what happened was I got free from all that. So I I was always a competitive golfer, and so I started playing more golf. And my mom gave me a camera when I was five, and so I started taking pictures, and it turned out I wasn't bad at it and uh doing landscape and wildlife. But then I found what I loved, which is shooting pictures of eclipses, and um I so I'm an eclipse photographer called they're we're called umbrophiles. That means we chase eclipses all over the world.

SPEAKER_02 13:07

Wow, I love what I heard. I never met anyone that did that.

SPEAKER_01 13:10

And so what what a syzygy is, is it's three celestial objects that form a straight line inside a gravitational field. So an eclipse isn't a syzygy, but not all syzygies are eclipses, so it's like the earth, the moon, and the sun, straight line. That's when you have a total eclipse. And so I started doing that and traveling, and it's just so much fun doing it. And so then what do I do with all the pictures? Because on every eclipse, we shoot about 9,400 pictures. And so I had a choice to make and I decided I was gonna, and it's to this day I've not put a penny of revenue in my pocket from any of those pictures or any of the trips. All the money goes to children's health, children's cancer, cancer, PTSD, or battered shelters. And those are just things I think needed. And I'm able to do what I love doing, but yet help somebody else. And uh, so that's what it set me free. It set me free to do other things. I before I had my spine tumor last year, I played pretty good golf. And um, between writing books and shooting pictures, I was playing golf and got to a plus two handicap, which means yeah, which yeah, it means basically I was averaging one or one to three strokes under par every round.

unknown 14:14

Amazing.

SPEAKER_01 14:14

And I was supposed to I was supposed to play in the British amateur last year. You were yeah, yeah, and then I had a spine tumor, L3, which means I couldn't do that. I had a spine surgery. So I'm working back at it again. Then something else happened. Well,

Why Multidisciplinary Cancer Teams Win

SPEAKER_01 14:27

because of this issue I had. I heard us are called multidisciplinary cancer care teams.

SPEAKER_00 14:33

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 14:33

And what's that? Well, to give you a statistic on it, the the reduction in mortality rates if you're treated by a team, a multidisciplinary team, is absolutely staggering. Uh, for instance, in lung cancer with 38,000 participants, there's a 40% reduction in death if you're treated by a team versus a solo practitioner. Okay, and it goes across the board. So we'll talk about renal. It's a 33.2 months longer lifespan. Okay. 53% reduction in mortality rate, changing it from 20.5% uh mortality rate, I mean survival rate to 55%. And it just goes on and on and on. And so what I figured out was that I had had a team uh because right when I was doing big deals, I always had as many as 30 or 50 lawyers on my team to do a deal. And so I had specialists in tax law and environmental law and all these law specialists. And you know, I'm I'm a pretty good tax lawyer, but I had you know tax lawyers too, um, who that was their specialty. And what happened was is you you would get different perspectives looking at a problem. Well, it happened for me, and I survived because of that, and because my specialists, which included a psychiatrist, a physical therapist, and one other, that that they would communicate with each other on a regular basis. Well, as a result of that, my daughter, I didn't know this at the time, was told that I had two and a half years to live when I was diagnosed. You didn't know I didn't I didn't want to know. I mean, I I'm I I'm gonna control my destiny, not not some statistic. And um, and so I'm now in my 18th year of receiving daily oral chemo, and my 17th year of receiving IV chema. And so I've written another book that's coming out very soon. And the publisher and I are disagreeing about the title, but um, I call it a new hope in the promise of multi-disciplinary teams. And then the question is is what it who started this multidisciplinary team process, and you know what isn't team? So one of the first things I did was research what a complete team would be. Okay, and this is where this is kind of crazy. It could be up to 50 different professionals. 50 now, 50. Yeah, now you don't need, but maybe five of those or four of those. But yeah, you're gonna need your oncologist, of course. I think you need a psychiatrist because of some to to address some issues uh that they're better equipped to address. Uh, and those are the side effects from some of the chemo, but you also need a statistician and a coordinator to make sure people talk to each other. So I wrote this all out, and then I was on the phone with my surgeon at Mayo Clinic's office, and they said some stuff, and I finally said, Okay, when did you guys go multidisciplinary? And he said, Glenn, who told you that? I said, You did. You just said these things, and that's that's multidisciplinary practice. Well, Glenn, yeah, the real the real problem is how how do we figure out what the team should be? And I said, look in your indocs, and there's the list. And it starts out with the ones I just talked about. You know, you're you know you're just your regular old uh oncologist, but it ends up with maybe an art therapist or a music therapist because some people react differently. What happens is when you start studying this more, there's a um quality of life indicator. Well, most people, when they have cancer, lose energy and they lose passion and they lose purpose. Well, if you have a practice, a medical practice that's helping you out and it's multidisciplinary, one of the most important parts of multidisciplinary practice is quality of life. And there's a new study out of Germany that shows that there's almost a linear relationship indicating that the increased quality of life is directly correlated with increased life strength. So if you feel better, things go right. So one of my big things that I had was cancer fatigue syndrome, and which means I, you know, basically was falling asleep in the middle of the day. And there are technical terms for that, but it's it's just kind of ridiculous. But I, you know, I was falling asleep. So we addressed that. And when that happened, my my cognitive function was all back 100%. And the quality of life was great because I could go out and take pictures, I could travel, I could travel by myself, and the world was just better. So, you know, you you you you combine quality of life with it, you know, it just changes the world. So the multidisciplinary teams, though, there's some other interesting statistics. So when you have a team meeting, they have all these people come together, not all 50s. Normally it's the principal doctors and some palliative care people. Okay, in Europe, the diagnosis has changed 30% of the time and the treatment plan has changed 30% of the time. So it could be a cumulative two-thirds time changed or just a third, but in a third of the cases. So think about that. If you average it out, it's 50 basically 50% of the time patients' treatment or diagnosis has changed.

SPEAKER_00 19:10

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 19:11

Because you have different perspectives looking at the problem. So it's like a it's like a ball. You see a basketball, it's orange on the outside, right?

SPEAKER_00 19:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:18

So people talk about problems and they think it's a black, black and white, right? Well, it's not black and white, it's you know, it's like a ball. You got to look at it from every perspective. And then when you think you've got every perspective, you haven't. You go through the air hole and you look in, and it's not orange anymore, it's a black ball on the inside. I mean, that's what you're looking for, is you're looking for, you know, critical thinking. And when a person's practicing solo, they know the answers almost always, but they don't understand the perspective of looking at things from a different attitude, a different approach. Then the question is, is uh, okay, we've got this this whole process and it's so much better. Why isn't everybody doing it?

SPEAKER_02 19:56

Right. Why is that why are they not? I was just gonna Okay.

SPEAKER_01 19:59

Well, the first thing is is well, if I had died after two and a half years, it would save the insurance company lots of money because I take chemo every day, take IV chemo every month, and that's expensive. Well, the insurance companies probably aren't wild about it. Well, then doctors have to answer to other people besides the patient, you know, about what their plant treatment plan is. And a lot of doctors don't like that. Some doctors are great about it. But to give you an example, I was on a plane on my way to Mayo uh about six weeks ago, and the gentleman standing next to me, and you know, in Jackson's a small town, and we we have probably 7,000 year-round residence in Syria. And the guy was a uh retired cardiologist, a well, a well, well known cardiologist nationally. And uh I said, Where are you heading? And he said, Houston. So, what are you going down there for? He said, I've got cancer going just like you. And I said, Really? So we started talking about it. Well, the hospital who had been treating him, this is a world-class, world-renowned doc. He wanted to listen on what was called a tumor board. Before they had multidisciplinary meetings, they had tumor boards, and that means a doctor presents. You know what that you heard of this. Well, he wanted to listen in on it, didn't want to talk on it, mute my line. He just wanted to listen to what was going on.

SPEAKER_02 21:08

They refused, they wouldn't let him listen. He was a doctor, cardiologist, right?

SPEAKER_01 21:13

World-class cardiologist. Well, in multidisciplinary, the patients are encouraged to attend those meetings because the practice is no longer doctor-centric, it's patient-centric. So it's patient-centric healthcare. Well, I when I started this project, I was 90% plus, 95% plus on my first novel, finishing it up. I dropped it, it's sitting on the slide, and the the cancer work's coming out in the next six weeks. And right now it's being reviewed by a bunch of people to make sure the non-doctor who writes about cancer and how to treat cancer is not, you know, making a mistake in scenarios. And one part, one part of my thing that's fairly controversial every sense is footnoted to a peer reviewed journal article. Every sentence. So you know, because because some doctors aren't gonna like it at all, I say. But here's the here's an NIA. article. So, but you know, it's it they're green, people fight it, but it it just changes the world. Well, this whole process started about 30 plus years ago in Australia. And it worked so well it started doing it in Europe. And it worked so well people in the United States started doing it. And the last story on this this topic, you know, we I'll talk about it forever, but about five months ago, four months ago, I after I started really getting into it, uh one of the families who lives near me asked me, say Glenn, um our daughter was just diagnosed with stage four metastatic breast cancer. She's 25. We need to find the best people in the world. And I said, okay, I'll go to work on it. So I spent the next week researching. And during the process they asked me if I could identify anybody in California because that's where she lived. And lo and behold I found not one who just said they were doing it, one who actually looked like they actually were doing it. And the statistics bore it out. And that was the University of San Francisco Medical Center Cancer Program, breast cancer program. And it was like a different world when you read about it. And I've never talked to the people directly um but there's no doubt they are they are out of this world so much better than almost everybody else who's not doing it. I mean when you're doing it it doesn't how you do it, it doesn't how your communications programs work, how effective they are you're now there are now software processes in place that will help you with the communications part, which is so important. But to give you an example there was a William Williams and Thompson study last year that analyzed 179 other studies which was 56,187 patients. And all those studies prove that multidisciplinary teams improved the outcomes in every case than cellular-based practice.

Taking Responsibility And Using AI

SPEAKER_02 23:36

So what you're saying is something that I kind of did on my own. And when my husband had the transplant I didn't know anything about liver transplant right. And so I had I had this idea in you know using AI I'm very good at AI. I've been using it for years and I I really understand it. So I started uploading everything in there. I started uploading his his x-rays, his every report inside of it. And so I would ask a question. So when the doctor came in I would ask those questions and sometimes it looked at me like how does she know stuff? Like how in the world could this you know I went to art school for two years. I didn't go to 20 years of college right but I kept came out of that I thought was one doctor has one brain. That brain is not just filled with medical information that's filled with lots of things. So I uh and I get reports back from multiple doctors so maybe thousands maybe hundreds of thousands that I can just ask questions. I may not have done it perfectly but I'm gonna tell you what Glenn I was I was on top of it and things with and I'm like I don't think you should do that. And and so I would talk to them like I was their peer not just someone sitting there watching my husband Well you are their peer okay we're all human beings.

SPEAKER_01 24:46

And the biggest problem that most people have is they don't accept responsibility for their own care. And I I mean I when I had to go to Mayo to get this thing this work done on my spine uh there was a research project done volunteers a bunch of PhD MD PhDs that I work with did it and they identified the best doctor in the world. Well this doctor had one of the worst patient satisfaction indexes but he was known as the the absolute best doctor. So I'm sitting there with my daughter who was talking about facet nerve issues and things and I finally said I got to ask you a question. He said yeah Glenn what? And I said how can you have such a poor reputation? I said I've never met a doctor who is as open and direct as you are who who when you did the risk factors I mean I'm a lawyer I know what a good risk factor is. He did everything this was just spectacular he said Glenn how many peer reviewed articles are there in your procedure I think it said well it depends on how you define it about 13 or 16 how many did I write I said more than half. What's the biggest risk? He said it's nicking the sheath on the spinal cord um which will let a lot of spinal fluid out and which could be could be problematic in recovery. He said I've never had a patient like you I've never had a patient who did the work he said all the patients think that I'm the wizard okay and they can just come in here and I'll take care of it. They don't have to do anything and you know everything said I got I have 16 medical conditions which means they shouldn't have taken me as a patient but they researched me and knew that I am in total compliance with instructions do what I'm supposed to do. I work out six days a week you know do cardio weights and Pilates and he said yeah you're you're gonna be fine and so then he looks at me and says by the way I don't like something about you though you don't like something about me he said yes I said uh oh this is gonna get ugly he said I look at your backpack and it looks like it's a 60 pound backpack and you got hiking boots on I don't think you know how old you are how old are you and I said I don't know how old I am he said well when he said the only time I've ever had problems is with people like you and when I didn't fuse the three and the four the only time this guy's unbelievably good and he said I think we should fuse your three and four and I said well you know I'm a competitive golfist and I won't so a year from now you won't have any problems with that. But if you continue to do what you're doing I'm afraid that it might fail. And you're not going to slow down are you? I said heavens no sir I'm not gonna slow down okay this is a guy who is just so good but you know he looked at me like it was unusual to have somebody accept responsibility for their own care accept responsibility to do the research to understand what was going on. Okay. You know where I get upset with medical care is when one doctor won't talk to another doctor and you have a big problem because of that. And in my book I give five examples of that.

SPEAKER_02 27:20

Well I can't wait to get the book because I feel so much like everything you're saying and just watching through the years. I've been through a lot watching other people and you know my mother in law had just three months ago fell and hit her head off the concrete to which we found out she had a brain tumor after learning two, four days earlier that she had breast cancer in her lungs. So she's you know she's but unfortunately she's not you know she's not thinking as you're thinking and they're like they started around chemo but never told us they were doing chemo. So it's it's been a lot and I get that and you know I really admire you for doing that because I think even though you know I'm not a lawyer I'm not you know all of the things that you are which you're amazing but I am smart enough to know that they don't know everything one person.

SPEAKER_01 28:02

Well you're you're passionate about somebody and if you're passionate about somebody you care yeah and you you've got a tool that you've learned. And the thing is I've got for my uh handout in the book there are six memos they're they're long they're on QR codes.

SPEAKER_00 28:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 28:18

Well one of them is the integrated multidisciplinary team you know I tell the first person is the newly diagnosed patient. Okay this document says this document is a guide to team you deserve it it uh describes every professional who I believe may play a role in your care what they do and why they matter you have to have the right to ask for this level of care and I wrote this to help you understand what to ask for the question is no longer whether integrated multidisciplinary care works it works and the results are breathtaking. The real question is whether your institution is providing it if it isn't and you are a patient or caregiver who will your next institution or indoctor be okay and one for the caregiver and then one for the institution and what you have to ask the institution is the question question. The question is whether your institution is providing this service if it isn't providing and at the highest quality how are you going to fix this problem? If you can't fix the problem where should you send your patients yeah you shouldn't be treating them anymore. And and and and you know what you said is if you go to any of the reasonably good AI engines that reasonably good the ones that are scientific are better. They may be harder to read but they're better but if they've got an age recent AI thing you just put in your condition and say what are the what what treatment will provide the highest likelihood of longevity well I went to uh mayo for my executive physical and they put finally sent me to the cancer group and the cancer doc there who is world renowned unbelievably good looked at me and said how in the treatment you've got is so different than anything I've ever seen you said I know your doctor she's maybe the best in the world said but this is not what anything else has ever seen because we always do that this blood treatment first this other treatment these other things first and but you went straight in to oral came in and it didn't work quickly you we trained you changed one agent then you went surrounded IV I said yeah I said I'm not here to to tie I'm here to win and and the instructions were I want the longest life I can have I can deal with everything just go for it and that's what we've done and um I had three spots in my lung and four spots on my spine when I was diagnosed and there was cancer cells in my spinal cord and they said two and a half years. Yeah they said that's because they said two and a half years and I'm now in my 18th year writing books you know doing photography and hitting a golf club again.

SPEAKER_02 30:32

Sir

Legacy Through Time With Grandkids

SPEAKER_02 30:33

I want to ask you one question before you go because I thought this was interesting. How what has your grandson taught you about legacy?

SPEAKER_01 30:38

Well the thing is is it started with my what my grandpa taught me and then what my dad taught me and then what Sam's taught me um my grandfather my dad's dad took me to Glacier National Park every summer growing up and there's a lake there called Bowman Lake I call it grandpa's lake because we spent a couple weeks there to a couple months there every summer he was a very he ran exploration for Phillips Petroleum was a big big big job not a responsibility but he cared okay uh and my mom's dad was the same way. I mean he was the gentlest nicest human being I ever met and he had been a very successful businessman. So dad taught me a lot with the puppy story I've already told you. But Sam the first thing Sam taught me was something that some I was on a plane one day and I sat down to an evangelical preacher and I you know was busy and I didn't really want to talk to anybody I wanted to put my headset on and work. And then I just looked at me says how do kids spell love okay I know that's a trick question. And he said T-I-M E okay not quality it's quantity just spend time with them. Well my little boy my guy he has proven that fact he he's got a rule that neither my daughter nor her husband can come visit me or come to this town without taking him because we're best we're best friends. And he's yeah and um you know it just you spend every minute with him you can because you're creating memories and it's like some people think the best picture I've ever taken is Bowman Lake and I took it with a Canon 10 D which is a three megapixel camera. I now shoot with a 103 megapixel camera. Yeah okay and yeah but it's but it's it's it's a great picture and it it's just unbelievable. It's just such a beautiful place and he taught me to see things. When people come visit me when family comes visit me here I do something which is kind of controversial at with some of the families at times is I confiscate all their iPhones and iPads.

SPEAKER_02 32:24

You do that's a great idea.

SPEAKER_01 32:26

But then I do something to you at bat I give them if and it's theirs a brand new digital camera. And we have a contest every day about who takes the best picture.

SPEAKER_02 32:34

How fun that's so fun.

SPEAKER_01 32:36

And and the winner gets you know it depends on the family 20 bucks 50 bucks for 100 bucks and when there are three kids there's always one of them who's a real pain in the rear end about it. Until until they see their sibling get a hundred dollar bill then watch out game on and they're they back their heads outside the car instead of inside it. I taught my I've taught my grandson how to play golf and um last summer was probably the highlight of my golf life and you know I I've won a lot of things in golf but I mean it was this is a clear highlight of my life. So we spent two weeks on the driving reach. Yeah I teach friends and and sometimes professionals and I taught him a different way of doing it than anybody else has. But I taught him how to hear a driver first and taught him just how to get his left foot placed in the distance for the T. And we worked on that for two weeks and the the end of the second week we decided to go out and play nine holes. So I asked the pro director of golf here who's a good friend he's a phenomenal golfer yeah you know what distance I should start him at. He said 25 yards. I said no 200 and he looks at me so you out of your mind Glenn I said no so we settled on 150 or 175 depends on the hole. Well my young guy drove every green and regular just on he was on every hole in one shot off a T. Okay well he sometimes two putted sometimes three putted sometimes he four putted but when he finished the nine holes he shot a 36 from 175 150 put yards which was even part. Wow okay well people started asking me to teach them because I teach a different way of doing it and I said no that's for my grandson. I taught him how to play golf the way my dad taught me and the way my grandfather taught my dad and he now knows how to teach. So he'll he he he's six and the whole point about it is it's not competition it's it's having fun finding a way to celebrate life every day and now he's he's this the funniest thing that happened this past week he's in his in his little league or T ball he's a game they they sort of coach pitching him right out of the bat instead of P ball. So he the first two at bats he's batting left handed and the third and he's got you know lots of hits and stuff the third at bat he hits right handed. So he's a switch hitter at six wow and and the coach on the other team says that's that can't be legal it's like well if you know that only you can stop you, that you are the only impediment to your success, then guess what? That's what you teach and and seeing him learn those things, learn what he can do, learn that he can do anything and learn that he's supposed to help others you know that's the legacy I want and to have that's the legacy I hope he carries on. I'm sure he'll yeah I hope so.

Reach Glenn And Give Back

SPEAKER_02 35:07

Thank you so much. Honestly I might have to have you back because I have so many other questions but I want to know how can people get a hold of you.

SPEAKER_01 35:13

Okay well I've got a website which is glennjilliansturmsturm.com and glenngillion s t-r-m dot com and I do this with some reluctance my email address is glenn at sturm.net your first name at my last name.net Glender and the last thing I'm gonna say is if you buy the cancer set me free book and give it away to somebody who needs it I replace it for you at new post.

SPEAKER_02 35:41

I love that Glenn this has been such a powerful meeting and I I'm so happy that we met and I hope that we'll continue to get to know each other because you have shown me so much about pushing through adversity to get to the other side and you've had some major adversity although you had some major success too but I believe that you know the military helped you the cancer helped you all of this made you into this incredible human being you are so thank you very much.

SPEAKER_01 36:08

Thank you for your doing it's important and you're touching a lot more than one person a day. So my hats off to you.

SPEAKER_00 36:14

Thank you