National Network for Equitable Library Service

At seventeen, Nicole believed her life was just beginning. She was a senior in high school looking forward to college and living on her own. However, all her dreams vanished the moment she became injured. Diagnosed with the neurological and chronic pain disorder, complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), mainstream medicine viewed her pain and symptoms as being untreatable and incurable. She was living a nightmare. With no use of her right hand and minimal use of her arm, she depended on massive amounts of narcotics to survive each day. Yet even that could not control her agony. The crippling pain was so paralyzing that she faced periods where she was bed-ridden or wheelchair bound. All she had to hold on to was hope. Hope that her miracle would someday arrive… No, It is Not in My Head: The Journey of a Chronic Pain Survivor will spread hope, present answers, and allow others to believe in the unimaginable. It is not one young woman’s story back to health, but a culmination of our stories back to health.