Posted 9/14/2022 11:07 PM (GMT -5)
Praying.... this is so sad....
From Buhner:
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"Hi Everyone,
I thought I would post a health update so you would know where things stand with me – given that things are not looking too good. In 2013/14 I was diagnosed with COPD, a misdiagnosis as it turned out. What I do have is idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis which I did not know for quite awhile. The herbal protocol I developed for COPD did help that condition (IPF) but not as effectively as it would have had I been properly diagnosed. Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is, for most people anyway, work related. In this case, all my years of woodworking and fixing broken homes (every time we moved I bought a house and remodeled it). And of course many years ago I did this for a living, remodeling late 19th century mansions and breathing in a lot of particulate matter, matter that is known (now) to be harmful to the lungs. And after that, I kept making one of a kind pieces of unique furniture from exotic woods (i.e., not pine or red oak).
So for the past, nearly, 50 years I have been breathing in things that really were not good for my lung health. In the early years woodworkers in the USA used extremely poor face masks, not like those we tend to use in today’s post covid world. Then in 2013 I had a case of pneumonia (often a precipitating factor for IPF) which is what set things off initially. I was still doing relatively okay . . . until late February/early March 2020 when Julie and I went to a Renaissance Festival in Florence, Arizona. It was one of the first major Covid flash points and I caught Covid there. Regrettably after that, my lung health began to rapidly decline. That was a tough year but with a lot of focus I was able to turn that around and was getting well but then my dentist missed an infected tooth which I had been telling him was bad (he insisted it was not). It went systemic, got into my lungs and well, things just went downhill after that.
Regrettably, I have not been able to stop the progression of the disease in my lungs. The normal prognosis for IPF is 2-3 years, I have made it nearly ten but I am afraid that is all I can do. I am now in hospice, in the terminal stages of pulmonary fibrosis. I have somewhere between two weeks and two months left. I am trying to get my book Becoming Vegetalista finished (I am close) and am working on the interior and cover design now. I still have some work to do on the last two chapters. Unfortunately, due to my health problems, I am not going to be able to do the book as I had originally envisioned. Nevertheless, I am happy with how it is turning out, especially the second section of the book which was quite difficult to write. I hope those of you who read it feel the same. My distributor, Chelsea Green, is being very helpful as is my designer so one way or another the book will be out there sometime during the next three months, hopefully, at the very least, a small print run will be done before I die so that I can have a copy for myself as well. I really do want to see it in print.
I know that many of you have been sending prayers and good wishes my way for quite awhile now; I am sorry to have distressed you with these difficult health issues. (I had hoped to recover enough to once more go on the road and teach but that is not going to happen.) Your good wishes and thoughts have meant the world to me the past few years and I deeply appreciate your kindnesses and your messages of support. They have helped me through some difficult days and nights as I have traveled this particularly challenging road.
I have been holding off on giving an update on my situation in hopes that things would stabilize but they are not doing so. Regrettably, there is no way to tell how long I have but it is not going to be long. So, I have just decided to send you this update, my very best wishes, and my thanks for all your support of my work over the past years.
Green Blessings and much love to you all Stephen Harrod Buhner"