Don’t Run From Pain… Embrace it

In July of 1994, I fell over 120 feet, to what I thought was my imminent death. I survived miraculously, but the day before was the last “pain-free” day of my life. I broke six vertebrae, my shoulder, detached my bicep, blew out my right knee & wrecked the rest of my joints that weren’t blown or broken.

Since that painful night, almost 30 years ago, I’ve experienced pain on levels that very few humans could ever imagine. Just in the last six years of my intense full body re-build, I’ve experienced pain that I never imagined was possible… and I fell over 100 feet from the sky. I am extra lucky because I have tons of nerve damage and nerve pain is so bad it is known to be a killer, via suicide.

Despite this, I am shocked, confused and disgusted by our medical treatments for pain in this country…it’s inexcusable. 

Our culture is oddly preoccupied with pain. This is because the medical community was duped by greedy drug lords… called Big Pharma. And the medical community still listens to Big Pharma on this issue. I’ve been told by traditional doctors that I couldn’t have surgeries without opioids yet haven’t used opioids for surgeries in over a decade–cannabis only with ketamine, but doctors will tell you, straight faced, that cannabis doesn’t work for pain. I’ve been told in derogatory terms on many occasions by ‘medical doctors’ that: “If you aren’t taking narcotics daily, you must not be in that much pain.”

Here’s a fact: Doctors. Do. Not. Understand. Pain. And I tell them that to their faces, so you can pass along my message.   

Every human who has ever lived has experienced pain, and our ancestors experienced it in spades.  So, here’s the bad news: PAIN IS INEVITABLE. Granted, some of us experience more than others.

Here’s more bad news: There’s no secret cure for pain. 

People ask me ALL THE TIME: ”What do you take for your pain?” “How much does that hurt?” or the really dumb questions like, “Does that hurt at all?” These people are less concerned about the amazing things I can still do and all focus is: “How can you do anything with your pain?”

By focusing our attention on pain, the medical community has created a preoccupation with PAIN, it’s at a level of group paranoia. This when health, healing and well-being is what should be your focus.  When you prime your brain for pain, that is what will be your mind’s focus. This isn’t rocket science but for some reason it escapes American doctors. I normally do not even use the word “pain,” but for literary purposes and clarity, I am for this piece.

In contrast, if you prime your brain for healing, then pain is a mild side effect at worst. When you prime your brain for health and healing, the outcome is, wait for it… health and healing. That is why I do not allow my doctors or medical team to speak about pain to me. It is not important to my healing, health or well-being. In fact, pain is antithetical to healing because a brain preoccupied with pain will not allow the body to heal effectively.

As an example, despite my insane nerve pain, (Imagine being tased with a police taser in your spine and residual limb) I was in and out of the hospital in four days after my first amputation. I was walking five weeks later and running three months later despite this never-ending nerve pain. 

I had a friend who’s leg damage was less severe than mine and after seeing my success he decided to have his leg amputated. At that point he had been on opioids for two years and the medical team wanted me to convince him to get off opioids and use Marinol and ketamine. He opted for the opioids and spent over a month in the hospital because they couldn’t control his pain. A year into his recovery, he wasn’t where I was two months post-op.

I’ve also used ketamine alone with meditation in clinical settings to control my pain and vitals while having surgeries for hours at a time. To say I could help you with your pain issues is an understatement. 

To clarify before I go on, if you take opioids, you feel like you are in more pain than you are in reality.  Opioids are for acute pain, a short duration and never meant for prolonged use. Opioids taken for more than six months will actually make you hypersensitive to pain but in actuality you are just hypersensitive to any sensation. This combo of pain sensitivity added to increased drug tolerance and risk for dependency makes opioids horrible for pain relief. If your doctor doesn’t know this, find a new one. If your doctor denies what I am saying is true…run from that doctor. 

So how do I manage my Everest Level pain, or as I refer to it, “The P-word” and what do I take for pain?

Cannabis & Meds

• The only thing I take for pain is Cannabis. 200-300mg a day of full spectrum cannabis–and yes, I said 200-300mg a day.” Taken at night an hour or 2 before bed. I was put on synthetic THC by the military as a research subject and on medicinal marijuana by the state of Florida. The results were positive immediately. After 2 weeks, I no longer needed injections for my diabetes—for the 1^st time in 7 years.

• I was using high CBD for the medicinal, but my doctor recommended I use the high THC for the Pain. I never imagined a doctor would tell me I needed more THC, but I followed his advice. Over the years, I increased my intake of “the natural stuff” and the biggest medical benefits I felt, started after I was able to ingest 100+mg’s a day. 

• Besides the pain relief effects, cannabis is the best ant-inflammatory you can use daily and safely.  Munchies are the only side effects. Cannabis is also the best medicine known to man for neuropathic pain and nerve damage. Despite the munchie side effect, I’ve lost over 50lbs since I’ve started ingesting over 100mg daily.

• Cannabis is medicine and nutrition; you don’t smoke your medicine & nutrition.  You consume it so your body can process it. Smoking is for getting high and recreation, I don’t recommend it. Cannabis is the best sleep medicine money can buy, ask anyone–and again, no negative side effects except health and the munchies. So, despite cannabis being my pain medication, it takes the place of at least half a dozen other medications.   

• I do take spinal muscle relaxers, episodically when my back is so bad I can’t stand or get out of bed. This isn’t for the pain relief, but to get my muscles to relax enough to calm the nerve pain.

Mental Exercises

• My best tool for pain management, besides cannabis, is my mind. I meditate every day, in various ways. The best technique I find for pain management is just plain and simple “perfect breathing”.  It can be done sitting, laying or even moving.  I will listen to drumming or chanting some of the time, but the focus is always on creating the perfect breathing process.  Long nasal diaphragm inhalation with a proper full exhalation from the mouth, back to the inhalation…and repeat.   

• I hypothesize that putting all my minds focus on a basic human physiological process, I eliminate all background noise, and chronic Pain is always in the background. 

• When I had two legs, I did this for hours while running in nature. The sound of my feet hitting the ground was my drumbeats. I still utilize this technique when I handbike, its rhythmic, I’m in nature and I am laying down on my handbike. It facilitates a meditative state.

• As a lifelong martial artist in a plethora of disciplines, at a young age I was taught the secrets of Shaolin Monks for pain management. When asked how they could endure painful feats, like sitting under glacial waterfalls, the monks gave a great example of the minds ability to ignore sensation.  A question was posed in response:

”Are you conscious of the feeling of your feet when you are standing? Or your buttocks when you are sitting? No, your brain learns to ignore that sensation, Pain can also be ignored by you’re your conscious and pushed back into the subconscious if you train your mind”

This is my “secret” to managing pain. The power of the mind. The mind is the basis for all healing.

I use this not just for pain but also for my tinnitus. I just tell my brain there is an air handler in the background and my brain turns off my conscious recognition of the ringing in my ears. That’s how powerful our minds are if we train it.

Immersion in Nature

• Exposure to nature has a positive healing effect on humans, this is empirical data, not speculation. I was asked once when I lived in Florida, “Why do you pay so much to live on the water?” My answer? ”Because when I wake up, barely able to stand or walk, seeing that natural beauty through my glass wall every morning helps me stand and walk just a little better.” 

Science backs up these statements. 

I now live rural, surrounded by nature and I do most of my training and exercise immersed in nature…not a gym. 

Nature’s  beauty also helps your brain ignore the pain and put it deep into your subconscious. 

Activity, Exercise and Health 

• Nothing is worse than being in nightmarish pain, in bed or laid up. My reality is, that I am always in pain, so it is impossible to apply pain management if you are sedentary. 

• Activity takes your mind off of pain. Climbing a mountain hurts no matter what, but its better to be in pain on top of a mountain with a body full of endorphins and oxytocin than laying in bed excreting cortisol from the stress of conscious pain. If I can’t stand up straight in the morning, I go outside and walk around my property. Being sedentary and in pain is a life killer.

• Activity combined with exercise develops positive health results and the healthier your body, the better it can heal itself, recover and manage stress.  Pain adds to stress more than anything else I have ever experienced.  It can cause epic levels of cortisol production that can wreak havoc on your mind and body. Exercise reduces that stress, this is more empirical information.

Diet & Nutrition

• I rarely drink alcohol. Water and Brewed Cacao are my main sources of hydration, with a side of cannabis tea.

• If you are dehydrated your muscles are less engaged and less able to function properly. Proper health requires proper hydration and nutrition. Pain management requires good health. It’s a simple concept.

• Dehydration can induce cramping, the same can happen in your spinal muscles. I hear people complain about back pain after a night of hard drinking. You’re dehydrated and causing your own pain.

• I eat as little sugar as possible. Refined Sugar is horrible for you. It causes inflammation, stress responses, obesity, bad skin and bad health. The one thing worse than sugar that I avoid, artificial sweeteners. If you want to become a diabetic and enter into a negative metabolic syndrome, use artificial sweeteners. It wreaks havoc at the cellular level and inundates them with insulin that can’t be utilized, making your cells insulin resistant.

• Non-Indigenous Americans can ignore this one. I don’t eat wheat products. It causes massive inflammation for Indigenous Americans, it is literally poison to us. If you have Indigenous American heritage, and I’m not talking about all the white people who claim a mysterious “great great Cherokee granny,” if you have indigenous American lineage, I recommend you get genetic testing for gluten or wheat sensitivity or just don’t eat wheat products at all. 

Our ancestors subsisted on maize (corn). Wheat didn’t exist in the western hemisphere. Besides the massive inflammation, it damages your gastrointestinal tract…Bloody farts as you age is just one of the horrible side effects of eating wheat while being an indigenous American.

If you go to an impoverished “Indian” reservation (Or Texas) you will see swollen person after swollen person.  The US Government gives the reservations tons of government wheat unnaturally high in gluten…This is poison to Indigenous Americans…after 500 years…They are still trying to eliminate us.

DO NOT EAT WHEAT.

Specific Physical Exercises

• Think outside the box, get out of the gym and train in nature as much as possible. Learn new enjoyable ways to stay healthy. If you trained one way to be an elite warrior, that doesn’t translate necessarily into being a healthy functioning civilian member of society. These are some of the activities I engage in now 5-7 days a week.

• Swimming and Pool PT with water weights and resistance weights

• Handbiking & Wheelchair racing

• Mountain biking

• Ice hockey, roller hockey & ice skating

• Para-marathon and triathlon

• Alpine Skiing, Snowboarding, skibiking, Nordic Skiing

• Water skiing and wake boarding

• Hiking and mountain climbing

• Kayaking, Canoeing & Paddle board

• SCUBA Diving or snorkeling

• Hill Sprints: Uphill running is easy on your joints, increases muscular strength and power and is great cardio.

Notice that traditional weight training, gym workouts, running and ruck running wasn’t listed. Your goal is health, not to be an elite warrior. My last stress test I was at 13.4METS, world class cardio with no running or traditional weight training.

As a warrior, I trained for that job at an elite level.  As a retired warrior, health can be fun, enjoyable and happy.  If your exercise activities bring you joy and happiness, you will do them consistently for the rest of your lives and maintain a constantly high level of health.

Mental Health

• You CANNOT manage Pain without Good Mental Health and Happiness. 

• If you are not happy, get happy.  You can do this yourself but if not; get therapy asap.

• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy can be self-administered, If you are not happy, I highly recommend it.

• Life is full of both positive and negative, CBT helps train your brain to focus on the positive and dispel cognitive distortions and negative inputs.

• Read The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor

• Read Before Happiness by Shawn Achor

So there you have it. There’s no magic pill, just hard work, dedication, determination, great health, positive mental health & happiness. But remember, these are not one offs. This takes consistent hard work, but if you make it as enjoyable as possible, your outcomes will be exponentially better and the Pain will fade into the back of your mind. If you think this is hog wash, go climb a mountain and stand on the summit. Then get back to me.

A friend recently commented, “You’ve had such a hard life”.

I said: “Yeah, but I’ve experienced glorious moments you can never imagine and I’ve done things few humans ever will and I wouldn’t give that up for anything.”

As an added bonus, and the best part about embracing the pain and enduring a 19-year nightmarish full body rebuild has allowed me to be the “young fun” Granpa. I’m the Granpa that plays laser tag, soccer, downhill skis, ice skates, and goes to the trampoline park. 

At the last outing to the trampoline park, one of the workers asked, “Why do your kids keep calling you grandpa?”

”Because I am.” He was shocked. 

Coming up on the 30th anniversary of that fateful and painful night, and 29 years after the military wanted to put me out to pasture, I can honestly say that if you want to truly live a fearless and unfettered life then embrace pain. Or as us Rangers say, “embrace the suck.” Nothing worth doing is ever easy…RLTW. 

The source for this information is from my life experiences and things I experimented on myself with a basis on learned knowledge or through scientific hypothesis based on observation or experiential knowledge.  

_______________________________

This first appeared in The Havok Journal on March 6, 2024.

Shane was a former elite athlete(football & wrestling) who left college after getting hurt to pursue his dreams of being in U.S. Special Operations as a Ranger in the 75^th Ranger Regiment. He spent 13 years in the military before being medically retired in 2005/2008. He served in 1^st Ranger Battalion, the 173^rd and as a Ranger Instructor and Combat Diver at 6^th Ranger Training Bn. Since retirement, Shane spent the last 19 years as a tech entrepreneur while enduring a grueling full body rebuild to include multiple artificial joints and amputations. He’s been training and competing in para-sport and adaptive sports since 3 weeks after his initial amputation and now teaches, coaches & mentors disabled children, adults, veterans and Rangers. 

Most recently, Shane started an adaptive sports & wellness program for members of the 75^th Ranger Regiment in partnership with over a dozen national Adaptive Sports Organizations. In his spare time, he is still involved in LED & renewable technologies, writing and curing PTSD with psychedelics. He also competes for U.S. Special Operations Command on Team SOCOM.   

As the Voice of the Veteran Community, The Havok Journal seeks to publish a variety of perspectives on a number of sensitive subjects. Unless specifically noted otherwise, nothing we publish is an official point of view of The Havok Journal or any part of the U.S. government.