It was the COVID pandemic and my clinic — which was already booked to the brim with fatigued patients — started to overflow with COVID survivors. They had developed what would later be called COVID PACS, or Post Acute COVID Syndrome, commonly known as Long COVID. Once I saw in January 2022 that I was already booked through December, and that I was struggling to offer follow ups to the patients already under my care, I sadly had close my clinic to new referrals. I had previously a chance to try and modify a couple of protocols that seemed to dramatically improve patient’s health. How could I continue to help COVID survivors when having a closed clinic?
I had observed that it took too long for Long COVID sufferers to get help in the first place. They needed resources and guidance much sooner. And now my clinic was closed to new referrals. So I decided to publish my protocol and make it a resource that anyone could use. I had never published a book before, and didn’t know where to begin. Fortunately, my mentor Donald Abrams, and his husband Cliff — both published authors — suggested I join BAIPA. There happened to be a meeting later that week, so I joined your September meeting right away. I met John Byrne Barry and Ruth Schwartz, aka “the Wonderlady,” at the first BAIPA meeting, and they both took an interest in helping me with my book idea. I was in the middle of writing my manuscript already, and was able to hammer out a very rough draft — warts and all — during a two-week vacation that I turned into a work vacation.
John was amazing — despite getting COVID himself and feeling sick, he worked on the book interior and had an initial pdf available within a couple of weeks. Later he developed my website. Because the book is an academic effort — getting the references and images rendered correctly took much longer than the actual manuscript. Ruth produced a beautiful cover image and guided me through the multiple steps needed to become a published author, even though she got COVID as well.
With this dream team in place, we published the book in Operation Warp Speed mode — by early February, it was available on Amazon! I am so proud to have a resource for patients to recover from what can be a devastating illness. Thank you BAIPA for being such an incredible resource and for this wonderful community!
You can find the book here and learn more at carlakuonmd.com.
