Ardmore leader thriving in spite of cancer

By Jim Stafford

Published: July 2, 2008

"I'm not sick or anything,” Brien Thorstenberg told me in a telephone interview earlier this week.

Of course, he's not.

The vice president of development with the Ardmore Development Authority, Thorstenberg has stage 4 non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. It was discovered behind his left eye last summer after a routine eye exam.

The cancer was treated with radiation but has since spread to his kidneys and adrenal glands.

He began chemotherapy this spring, and his hair has fallen out. He took his last scheduled chemo treatment at the OU Physicians Clinic on Tuesday.

I ran into Thorstenberg on the floor of the San Diego Convention Center last month where he was one of a group of Oklahomans pitching the state as a biotech hot spot at the giant BIO 2008 International Convention.

His appearance was so radically changed since I saw him at the Southwest Capital Conference here in town last fall that I almost didn't recognize him.

"It can be startling when people don't recognize you or, more importantly, I look in the mirror and sometimes I don't recognize myself,” Thorstenberg said. "That's the scary one, but it will grow back when all this is over. It's a small price to pay.”

Yet, he didn't want to talk about cancer at the BIO show. He wanted to talk economic development for Ardmore and for Oklahoma.

Thorstenberg worked his shifts on the floor of the convention center, chatting up visitors to the Oklahoma pavilion and talking economic development strategy with his fellow Oklahomans. He said he's not in denial of the cancer, but it has yet to make him physically ill.

When he wasn't on duty at the show, Thorstenberg took his wife, Glenna, and two children sight-seeing in the San Diego area, including a sailing adventure in the San Diego Bay.

So, I called him after we returned to Oklahoma and asked how he continued to attack life so vigorously while at the same time trying to keep cancer at bay.

"It's a very treatable cancer,” Thorstenberg said. "I began going to chemotherapy in March. At the halfway mark, the prognosis was very good and showed very good progress. The doctors are very encouraged about it.”

Except for the chemo and the side effects, Thorstenberg says the cancer has caused little interruption in his life.

"I'm not as strong as I was before I started going through chemo, but my quality of life has not been affected,” he said. "Work has been very supportive, too. I've been able to work all the way through this except for chemo sessions.”

Wes Stucky, Thorstenberg's boss and president of the Ardmore Development Authority said, "There was one afternoon that he didn't feel well and went home about 3 o'clock. I'm talking one afternoon in the whole thing. It's pretty amazing. He's not missing a beat, and we're very appreciative of it, and it's very admirable.”

Bottom line to all of this is that you might say there is an up side to cancer for Brien Thorstenberg.

"There have been a tremendous amount of positives that have come from this,” he said. "When you are not sick or throwing up all day, it's a lot easier to be positive. And, when the quality of life is not affected, you can strengthen relationships. Our family has become a lot closer.

"I appreciate the blessings we all have in life instead of taking them for granted. I'm not trying to be all pie in the sky, but ... I've had a very good quality of life during this treatment.”

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