When I started writing NERVE, I wasn't trying to write a book about chronic facial pain.

I was trying to write honestly about what happens when pain crashes into a life and utterly rearranges it. I wanted to capture an experience shared by millions of people living with chronic pain, to help others feel less alone, and to give voice to something many of us have felt but struggled to express:

We are right in front of you. We want to be seen.

"The deepest human need is the need to be understood."

—Stephen Covey

That's why the responses from my early readers have meant so much to me.

"This book is so, so important. I saw me on every single page."

"I finished it yesterday and immediately asked my husband if he would read it."

"Took me a whole two days to read it because I obviously could not put it down."

"Your book is not only an easy read, it is a great lesson for both the medical professional and the patient sides, an inspirational guide to life with pain and taking charge, a painful but fruitful path of self-discovery and more."

One reader even told me,

"I want to buy about a dozen copies and give them to people I know in the medical field."

If NERVE helps people living with pain feel understood—and helps others understand them more fully—then every difficult word was worth writing.

Two weeks until launch.

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