NERVE: A Memoir of Chronic Pain, Medical Trauma, and Surviving the Healthcare System

by Erika Conrad-Wess, Mark E. Linskey (Foreword), Richard A. "Red" Lawhern (Foreword)

242 pages, Hardcover

Published July 1, 2026

About the author

Erika Conrad-Franzi is the author of NERVE: A Memoir of Chronic Pain, Medical Trauma, and Surviving the Healthcare System. For more than twenty years, Erika has lived with severe chronic facial pain, navigating a maze of specialists, surgeries, medications, insurance battles, misdiagnoses, and life-altering medical decisions. Along the way, she learned that surviving illness often requires far more than surviving the illness itself.

NERVE is the story of that journey. Blending memoir with commentary on the realities of modern healthcare, the book explores chronic pain, medical trauma, patient advocacy, resilience, and the often-overlooked human cost of navigating a system that can be both lifesaving and deeply flawed.

Beyond her writing, Erika is a business owner, patient advocate, and founder of one of the largest online support communities for people considering or recovering from microvascular decompression surgery for facial pain. Through her work, she has helped thousands of patients and families better understand complex treatment decisions and the challenges of living with chronic illness.

She lives in the mountains of western North Carolina with her husband and family. NERVE is her first book.