private function getTotalTime($startTime)
{

  $curTime = date("g.i.s");
  
  $then = split('.', $startTime);
  $now = split('.', $curTime);
  
 
  $seconds = abs($then[2] - $now[2]);
  $minutes = abs($then[1] - $now[1]);
  $hours = abs($then[0] - $now[0]);
  
   return ($seconds + ($minutes*60) + ($hours*3600));
}

var_export($then, true) as well as var_export($now, true) = 

0array (
  0 => '',
  1 => '',
  2 => '',
  3 => '',
  4 => '',
  5 => '',
  6 => '',
  7 => '',
)array (
  0 => '',
  1 => '',
  2 => '',
  3 => '',
  4 => '',
  5 => '',
  6 => '',
  7 => '',
)