Introduction

1 in 5 people in the United States suffer from chronic pain, although you may not see it because pain is invisible. 

Though Western Medicine has advanced in so many areas, it is far from understanding chronic pain. According to the CDC, chronic pain “contributes to high health care costs and lost productivity.” Not only does chronic pain affect productivity, but the way chronic pain is usually treated lacks productivity. Treatment is expensive and most of the time isn’t very effective.

Unfortunately, this lack of understanding has actually contributed to the increase of people suffering. Chronic pain has become an epidemic. And every diagnosis, every pill, every band aid that is created is steering us further away from finding true healing. 

So… What do you do when Western Medicine doesn’t have the answer? What about when a 15 year-old boy is told he will be in pain for the rest of his life?

My name is Ryan Massey and my life is no longer controlled by chronic pain.

I began studying chronic pain and writing about my discoveries six years ago. I believe that what I’m going to share in this blog will lead many readers to the same type of freedom from pain that I found. The strange part is that it’s actually much simpler than everything else I tried. And once I truly understood the root cause of pain, I was set free from pain’s grip on my life.

My journey began 15 years ago today…

I was fifteen years old and nearing the end of my freshman year of high school. That night I would attend prom on a Newport Harbor yacht. I had been asked by my friend who was a junior to be her date — pretty cool for a freshman, right? I was thrilled.

That night, our group met at my date’s house before we headed to the dance. After smiling for photos in my black and white polka-dotted tie, I jumped into my date’s car and we were on the road.

I have no memory after pulling onto the onramp of the 73 Toll Road. Except for the visual image of an analog clock reading the time of the accident -

7:17 PM

My parents were in the middle of dinner when they got “the call” that is every parent’s nightmare. Food still on the table, they dropped everything and rushed to the hospital. I was in an induced coma by the time they arrived. The doctors didn’t have clear answers and my family didn’t know if I would survive. If I did survive, it was likely that I would be paralyzed.

These hours were a time of grief and fear as they waited.

Waited for me to breathe without the oxygen machine.

Waited to see my eyes.

My family stayed by my side for the next two days, praying that I would wake up.

Praying that I would be healed.

I woke up two days later. My first thought was to ask if Carrie Underwood had won American Idol. The season finale had happened the night before the accident and it was a top priority in my fifteen year-old mind. My parents gave me the answer that I had hoped for then proceeded to tell me about a tragedy that I had survived that would lead to questions that I would struggle to comprehend the rest of my life. 

I never made it to prom.

I learned that I was in a serious car accident just moments after my memory of getting on the toll road.

While “Holla Back, Girl” played on the radio, the Isuzu Rodeo we were in started fishtailing then flipped three and a half times. The windows shattered as the roof caved in on my head. The SUV crumpled with us inside. Two people were ejected from the car as it rolled.

That night they would have been named Prom Queen and King.

They were killed.

Two innocent lives, not even eighteen years old — gone.

I tried to continue on with my life as if everything was the same but it would never be the same. 

After only a week, the doctors said that I healed miraculously as they removed my neck brace and sent me home with just a walking cane. I went back to school in the fall to begin my sophomore year of high school. Only those closest to me knew about the serious neck pain that I was now suffering from.

As the years went by, the pain increased. I sought out every doctor possible and was told the same thing by each one -

I would be in pain for the rest of my life.

Four years after my car accident the hardest part of my journey began. Two grand mal seizures started years of spiraling medical issues - chronic back pain, back surgery, a hernia, frequent dislocations of both shoulders, tingling and numbing sensations throughout my body, lightheadedness and fatigue - to name a few. I couldn’t imagine living this way for the rest of my life.

During that week in the hospital, my parents prayed for physical healing, but in His timing God had an even better plan. What I couldn’t have imagined then was the way God would use the next fifteen years to mold me and shape me. Not only did He answer their prayers, but He also healed me from the inside out.

I hope you’ll follow me on this journey as I share the lessons I’ve learned and the perspectives I’ve gained.

1 in 5 people suffer from chronic pain. Whether that’s you or a loved one, I pray you open your mind to some new ideas that I believe have the power to heal the “incurable” and teach us to “Mind The Pain.”