Denice Patterson
RARE
A Life Interrupted By Extreme Pain
A memoir of pain, hope, and resilience
RARE is a raw and deeply personal memoir by Connecticut based author Denice Patterson, chronicling her life with Trigeminal Neuralgia.
Her journey explores the intertwining of chronic pain, motherhood, and the enduring strength of the human spirit.
Join Denice as she shares her story of resilience and hope.
Two seconds
All it took was two seconds to change my life forever
I went from being a newly retired mom of young children, my future full of possibilities, to someone struggling to survive.
It all began during a coughing attack, an explosion of electric-shock-like pain in my mouth lasting only two seconds dropped me to my knees.
That agonizing pain changed my life in the most profound ways.
The diagnosis... a nightmare I could never have imagined.
Hi! I'm Denice
Writer, advocate, and someone who knows what it's like to live with a chronic pain disorder.
I never dreamed of being a writer, that is, until life gave me a story too significant not to write about. That story is called trigeminal neuralgia. I'd never heard of it before being stricken with the affliction, but this rare pain disorder would go on to influence what was supposed to be my best yet most challenging years with my two young children.
During those years, sports photography became a passion of mine, a perfect distraction as I transformed beauty in motion into statuesque stillness through the eye of a lens. Playing the piano added to the much needed peaceful escape I sought.
Originally from Long Island, NY, my family and I now reside in a beautiful shoreline town in Connecticut.
I wrote my debut memoir, RARE, not just to raise awareness about trigeminal neuralgia, but to acknowledge the hardships that led me to honor the power of resilience, hope, and above all love.
Denice xo
For fans of Brain on Fire, a former police officer and mom of young children, tells her story of finding strength through her love for her family as she battles a rare and incurable chronic pain disorder ominously, and aptly, regarded as the most severe pain known to humanity.
At thirty-nine, recently retired Denice Patterson looked forward to a future full of possibilities with the love of her life and two young children. That is, until a coughing attack delivered a sudden shock of pain to her face so severe that it dropped her to her knees. The agonizing bolt of electricity lasted mere seconds. But the zaps kept coming, and soon, Denice was living in constant state of dread.
Rare chronicles the emotional roller coaster Denice rode in the months following her diagnosis with a condition that causes a pain so ferocious and life-consuming that it’s earned the moniker “suicide disease”—while she searched desperately for a solution to her pain. Through countless doctors, multiple procedures, and catastrophic complications from a “surgery gone wrong,” and in the face of unimaginable suffering, Denice’s fierce devotion to her family was often the only thing that gave her the strength to carry on and continue to advocate for herself.
A story of perseverance, resilience, and unbreakable love, Rare is a raw and inspiring testament to the strength of the human spirit and the power of hope—and one woman’s triumphant account of reclaiming her life.
Purchase RARE on February 16th, 2027.
About Trigeminal Neuralgia
