ThePhotoDept Chris Sturm

[Bassethoundmama]

Thank you so much for creating this new thread!

More than once I've seen people commenting about him driving after suffering a seizure recently. Not only is he driving, but he filmed his entire 22 min video while behind the wheel. But hey, his doctor's say he can drive....so what do I know?

 

[AlwaysScience]

I HATE how antivaxxers jump on everyone who got the vaccine and then happens to get cancer, have a heart attack or stroke, just anything - and they gleefully call them idiots for falling for the deep state or whatever their demented minds conjures up. I'm gonna start again with him and try to be less annoyed. It will help a LOT if I don't watch his videos! I think he's one of those people (hello Tiffany!) who like to make things up to sound a certain way but never really want to give you the whole unvarnished truth. Sometimes I think they don't even know what the truth is because they live in a confabulation... well, I was gonna start again. I'm upset with myself that I let him bother me so much initially.

Anyway, I looked it up and Wisconsin is one of the bonehead states that refused to expand Medicaid, even with the federal gov't picking up 100% of the cost! My state has lost a few rural hospitals that went under because of so many unpaid bills (because they don't want any freeloading minorities or some such crackpot reasoning - well, lack thereof). I lose a lot of sleep worrying about the vitriol in our polarized country but I need to let that go too.

Boring part so you can skip: They invented Obamacare thinking that everybody would get Medicaid (free) who didn't qualify by their income to get government help on the premium. So there's a bizarre lower cut off. Like if you make, say, $25,000 a year, the govt will pay 95% of your Obamacare premium for you. BUT if you make less than that, the gov't will pay ZERO of your premium for you (because they planned for you to get Medicaid which is free).

But then our rightwing Supreme Court threw out the requirement that states provide Medicaid up to the lower limit ($25k or whatever) [never mind that it would have been free!!!] -- so those very poor people are left with having to pay the huge premium with no help whatsoever!! And it's often $600 a month for one person - something like that. AND the Republicans won't let Congress close that loophole so a whole lot of very poor people have no healthcare coverage whatsoever! This is true for 10 states, almost all in the Deep South (because of rightwing/antivax stupidity) but Wisconsin is the midwestern outlier! The other 2 non-southern states are Wyoming (libertarian cowboys) and Kansas (almost southern and a rightwing stronghold).

Wherre's my ativan?!?!?

ETA: I wrote all that before I saw AlwaysScience's great post so sorry if it sounds like I ignored her.
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Wow - that's shocking! I didn't think you even had to count a girlfriend's income (only your actual spouse).

Anyway, I live in Mississippi - and would you believe that no matter how poor you are, even ZERO income, you cannot get Medicaid - UNLESS you are under the age of 18 or you have children in your household under 18 that you are the primary caretaker of. Oh and one other exception: pregnant women.

I doubt any other state is as cruel as that. And bear in mind, by some measure, we're the poorest state in the union, 39% African American (and there's your reason, ladies and gents). I'm so disgusted with these people, my people I guess, but I don't think there's a remedy. I mean, I could move, but I have a lot of family and friends and I'm not poor. Miserable maybe, but not poor.
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Oh shit - I wasn't gonna do this, but yet another thing about Chris' story doesn't make sense to me:

"He doesn't know when they will move to CA but he'll be treated at UCLA."

Why stay and e-beg for 100s of thousands of dollars when he could just go ahead and move, stay with his dad, and get this wonderful Stanford treatment on California's Medicaid? when he doesn't qualify for Wisconsin's?

And he says he doesn't qualify because he lives with his girlfriend?? Does that mean that every person in his state who has any kind of roommate would have to count their roommate's income (and there not qualify for Medicaid)?

Damn, man, MOVE and visit her occasionally. It's your LIFE we're talking about.

OR - and this is very simple - say that you broke up with her and she's not your girlfriend any more but you're simply "roommates" -- or rent a frickin' room from someone and have that separate address and the medical expenses would outweigh the cost of that room many times over!!!

But no.... Instead of doing something logical, he wants people to dig into their savings and send him money to save him. Ughhhh. Someone tell me to go away. I've managed to quit watching him, but here I am, getting worked up, just reading about his flakey grifty decision making.

Very well said - all of it. I live in Texas - another state controlled by Republicans that refuses to expand Medicaid. Tens of thousands of poor people here unable to get medical care other than in hospital emergency rooms or the county hospital - IF their county has a hospital. Imagine being poor and not having a car, and having to take buses to get to a county hospital for chemotherapy. A lot of poor people just give up and die from untreated medical problems.

Another problem is my property taxes are crazy high, in part because I’m paying to support my county hospital that treats poor people. If Medicaid was expanded the county hospital would not need as much money from homeowners’ property taxes because it would get money from Medicaid.

Oh Chris never said why he couldn’t get insurance from the state of Wisconsin Medicaid - he didn’t even use the word Medicaid. I looked it up online. Your household income is the determining factor in qualifying for Medicaid in Wisvonsin.

I have mixed feelings about Chris using GoFundMe donations to pay for his medical care. I hate that he refused to buy medical insurance under the ACA before he got diagnosed with cancer. Former Olympic gymnast Mary Lou Retton did the same thing. But I guess I prefer he get the money from people who are willing to donate it rather than taxpayers having to pay for it.

Re Retton: A reporter later asked her why she didn’t have medical insurance when she was hospitalized and she lied - she claimed she could not have afforded it due to pre existing conditions. Under the ACA medical insurance companies cannot charge you more based on preexisting conditions. Heck, they don’t even know about your preexisting conditions because when you go online and fill out the form there is no question about your medical history,

 

[riley123]

I just realized I keep typing Justin Lee when it's Jason Lee.

 

[Elpis]

Oh dear - 8 spots on the brain sounds terrible! Hope it works out ok for him.

Stanford's great but it's a 40 minute drive from San Francisco -- from Los Angeles, it's almost a six hour drive.

I'm sure it's rated pretty high - but from what I can find, not as high as UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, which 'verywell health' ranks as the 5th best cancer center in the US (after MD Anderson, Sloan Kettering, Mayo, and Dana Farber - City of Hope is #7). But it probably depends a lot on the type of cancer and which specialist you end up with.

I'm such a chatterbox today - sorry about that. This particular man and his situation has been so triggering for me - not sure why.

 

[Bassethoundmama]

I feel the same - when he insisted on driving after getting diagnosed with brain mets I was appalled that he would put other people at risk. I never believed his claim that his doctors said it was ok for him to do that. I also don’t like how he refused to get insurance under the ACA then when he got diagnosed with cancer he expected state and/or federal programs to pay for his treatment.

I completely agree. His GFM raised $50k in such a short amount of time - then stalled. I do have to question if that has any part in taking his cancer journey off you tube? He was completely happy to announce, "I have cancer" to the world when thousands of dollars were pouring in.

 

[AlwaysScience]

I think that is spot on. Because the GoTundMe has stalled he is pivoting to an “exclusive” mechanism that he can charge money for. I guess it’s “can’t hurt, might help.”

 

[riley123]

They moved to Wisconsin for her to attend nursing school. He had to sell some of his cameras to help move so it appears he doesn't have much savings. I don't know if he will become a salaried employee of Justin's camera shop when they move or whether they can figure out a way to keep him on MediCal. He seems very optimistic about putting this whole situation behind him at some point but, if that positive attitude is what is keeping him going, than I won't say anything negative about that.

 

[Bassethoundmama]

I think Christopher Sturm has more intelligent followers than TiffanyThinks. A number of them have expressed concern about him driving, and about him driving and recording video at the same time.

Also, one of them looked up survival statistics for people with non small cell lung cancer with EGFR mutation and commented about it, with a link. Chris Sturm hasn’t yet said anything about survival info for metastatic NSCLC in his YouTube videos other than a vague comment about feeling more optimistic after getting information on his gene mutation.

Can’t imagine one of the TiffanyThinks followers looking online at medical journal articles to see recent survival statistics for colorectal cancer.

Well, now that I think about it, I guess Tiffany might have had followers in the past who did bring up survival information, but she or someone in her family deleted those comments.

I have never watched Tiffany, I know almost nothing about her. But i get the sense Christopher thinks of his cancer journey as a documentary style vlog he's producing, he says as much. He seems almost naively optimistic but he does seem to have the support of the photography community he belongs to. I can't help but wonder what his GF says - surely she is more realistic.

 

[TryingMyBest]

We do have a lot of “working poor” people in the US. They don’t make enough to pay for housing, utilities, food and medical care but they are not poor enough to qualify for government programs. A lot of USpoliticians say that people on government programs should work, but there is no government paid childcare so those people have a safe place to leave their kids when they go to work. It’s a horrible system.
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Thanks for this information. In Wisconsin since he lives with his girlfriend her income prevents him from qualifying for Wisconsin Medicaid. The monthly income cutoff there is $1,700.

Im guessing they will move in with his dad when they move to California. Since they are not married her income won’t count. And Medi-Cal, California Medicaid, no longer considers assets - just income.

I doubt he will work full time in California because of the time he will need for cancer treatment and the side effects.

In 2023 the ACA Open Enrollment period started on November 1 and enrollment could be effective as early as January 1, 2024. If it’s the same for the next open enrollment period, he needs the GoFundMe money for now until when he gets on Medi-Cal.

I assume he has looked into which UCLA oncologists accept Medi-Cal. When he was diagnosed with cancer he evidently thought he could buy medical insurance through the ACA whenever he wanted to and then found that no one has to sell him insurance after the end of the open enrollment period, unless he meets certain criteria. Hopefully he now understands the necessity of learning how insurance works.

Totally agree. The working poor are often screwed every which way to Sunday. That's not the case with the disabled child's family. They live in a very large home and have 2 cars that cost way over $100k each just as fun cars and then a fancy SUV the mom drives. Dad is a used car manager at a big dealership. They even have a cabin in the woods. Kinda seems like they are taking advantage of the system.

Not a big fan of Chris's friend Jason Lee but at least he finally quit Scientology.

I still think Chris thinks this cancer isn't going to be a big deal. I hope he is correct and it's not another Jenny Apple outcome.

 

[Elpis]

I apologize and I know I'm like a crazed dog with a bone, but can someone explain away what he said on the video I posted on page 1 of this thread, at minute 2.20 -- Chris literally said this:

"I had to buy some random insurance on the marketplace just to be able to get to be seen by a doctor which I’m finally doing tomorrow, my birthday, Wednesday, March 20th"

 

[AlwaysScience]

He has a new video and says it will be the last cancer update video because it's a photography channel and wants to keep his cancer information more private. The cancer journey is moving to a patreon account. The chemo has affected his appearance so he is standing at a distance, they move to CA July 1 so he can be treated at UCLA and a recent MRI shows that his brain mets are gone. I imagine it was surprising to go from being a relative unknown to having strangers post positive and also many negative comments. Of course he opened himself up by asking for donations from the public. I don't know how many people will subscribe to a patreon account.

I watched the video and have no idea what the title "Truth about My Cancer" means. I didn't hear anything new but maybe I'm wrong. The truth is he has cancer and is being treated for it.

Thanks for the summary of his video, The one fact I know about his cancer is that the $18,000/month drug that he needs is somethjng people with his type of cancer need to take every month for the rest of their lives, His GoFundMe isn’t generating $18,000/month,

Hopefully with his move to California he will be able to buy medical insurance under the Affordable Care Act so that drug will be covered. I think if you move you can enroll in an ACA insurance plan despite it not being the annual open enrollment period.

If he and his girlfriend don’t have strong family ties where they live now it makes sense to move to California for however much time he has left. In California they won’t have to deal with snow and ice in winter and in many California cities the weather is beautiful year round, except for some foggy mornings in some locations,

All my life I wondered who in the world buys deodorant because I could not imagine not needing antiperspirant. The first time I went to California was a birthday trip to Los Angeles. I thought “aha! it doesn’t get hot here so I bet people use deodorant instead of antiperspirant!“

In the summer there is hot weather in cities that are not near the coast like Pasadena where the temp can hit the low 90’s in the summer. Those cities that are not near the coast are less expensive to live in of course.
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OMG i am watching his video and WTF?
1-he assumed chemo would make his hair fall out instead of looking up the side effects for the chemo his oncologist put him on. That chemo usually doesn’t cause hair loss.
2- he screwed up his daytime nausea med Zofran and nighttime nausea med Zyprexa.

Due to my recent medical crisis and surgery I was on 5 prescription meds last week and now I am on 4 prescription meds. When I got out of the hospital I wrote a spreadsheet to track what meds I take and when each day. This is just common sense.

Anyone with a critical medical condition meds to be organized so they take their meds on time - and to check the labels on the bottles to make sure they are taking the correct ones. It can be seriously dangerous to mess up the dosage and timing of some meds.

 

[PuzzlesAndWine]

I don't watch much of this guy, just following to see where this goes but noticed these latest comments...anyone know what the 2nd one is about?

 

[Bassethoundmama]

Just for kicks, I checked out his patreon account. $3/$6 tiers and he hasn't uploaded since July 2023 (prior to today).

 

[TryingMyBest]

Please tell me this isn't more stupid bullshit about the Covid vaccine.

 

[Bassethoundmama]

Yeah medical doctors are VERY conservative in situations like this because they fear getting sued if they tell someone they can do something,the patient does it, and there are bad consequences. I haven’t seen anything else that would indicate that he is a liar so I don’t know what to think about this.
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Does anyone know where Chris Sturm’s family members live? I don’t remember him saying anything in any of his videos. If they live in Wisconsin then it makes no sense for him to try to move to Los Angeles given the poor survival numbers.

I looked for survival information online for people with non small cell lung cancer with mets to the brain and it looks like he isn’t likely to live more than a year. I wonder if his oncologist has told him how poor survival is with brain mets. TiffanyThinks gave the impression that she didn’t know the survival statistics for her colorectal cancer and didn’t want to know.

But I wonder if most oncologists feel obligated to give patients some idea of the numbers so their patients can plan appropriately.

I looked at his insta and it mentions his father is in LA. He definitely seems to be making an impression on viewers, his GFM reached $50,000 in less than 15 days. He's quite a talented photographer, I just hope he doesn't continue to film videos while driving

 

[AlwaysScience]

I'm going to be very blunt - Chris is not a likeable guy to me. He seems arrogant, he jumped on the GFM gravy train, got $57k towards treatment and now wants privacy? I would never publicly beg for $, announce my cancer diagnosis, etc. Kudos to him for wanting to take his cancer journey private. But is he? He'll continue to vlog for people to pay to watch on patreon i wish him the best but I wouldn't continue to watch him on you tube let alone subscribe to his patreon

I feel the same - when he insisted on driving after getting diagnosed with brain mets I was appalled that he would put other people at risk. I never believed his claim that his doctors said it was ok for him to do that. I also don’t like how he refused to get insurance under the ACA then when he got diagnosed with cancer he expected state and/or federal programs to pay for his treatment.

 

[Elpis]

I just saw Chris' instagram stories and in one still photo, he was wearing that molded brace on his face, that they make for people who are undergoing gamma knife radiotherapy to their brain when they have mets. Is there another possible reason for it?

 

[TryingMyBest]

I had breast cancer in 2014 and unrelated colon cancer in 2021. Wonder what bogus vaccine I can blame that on. Maybe the flu jab. Idiots.

I follow a woman with a severely disabled child. She and the child's dad live pretty well and but they don't get married because the child needs Medicaid. Kinda puts me off but God bless them for taking such wonderful care of that poor little kid.

 

[AlwaysScience]

I looked at his insta and it mentions his father is in LA. He definitely seems to be making an impression on viewers, his GFM reached $50,000 in less than 15 days. He's quite a talented photographer, I just hope he doesn't continue to film videos while driving

Thanks. Then it makes sense for him to move to LA and hopefully his girlfriend can move with him. I too hope he doesn’t record more videos while driving. If his dad has a home with enough room for both of them then it should be affordable for him to live however much more of life he has there. (I’m assuming he has retirement savings he can draw down since he is in his late 30’s. )

 

[Bassethoundmama]

I just rewatched his video. He mentioned he met Jason Lee late last year and he is going to help him build and subsequently run a film lab somewhere in LA. And they're hoping to have that up and running by December but now his diagnosis may affect that timeline. He also spoke about he and his girlfriend had intended to move back to LA to be closer to family. I also am wondering if he is aware of the severity of his diagnosis?