A Sense of Strength — An NBA Threads Story with @bipolrbear

The human spirit is a hell of a concept.

Whether you believe it is driven by the divine or solely from your own natural grit, there’s an indescribable part of us that survives even the worst of circumstances. It can take a beating that would make the Bad Boys era Pistons blush and still come out on the other side with unrelenting fervor.

While our minds face a tremendous amount of stress and our bodies confront Father Time on a daily basis, it is the human spirit that keeps us going down the court.

One of the strongest spirits I’ve had the pleasure of talking to recently is Paul Wenzel, known to NBA Threads as @bipolrbear. Paul has been living with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS), a rare chronic condition in his right leg and hip that affects how his body processes pain signals to the affected parts of the body.

“I couldn’t walk for a couple of years due to my disability,” Paul explains. “The nerve pain is intense and cannot be eased with pain medicine, with a significant chance that it will spread.”

To truly put into context how debilitating the condition can be, doctor’s have deemed it the “suicide disease” because of how many individuals have ended their life because of the pain levels and persistence.

Paul’s condition also features other secondary symptoms related to stimuli. “I am sensitive to light, sound, temperature, and touch. Anything - and I mean anything - touching my leg is excruciating beyond words.”

For years, Paul and his physicians were not sure what was causing his chronic pain, but he found his answer from a community that he built as a writer.

“One of my fans from my NBA writing sent me a message that my symptoms sounded like his and that I should look up CRPS,” Paul said. “After talking to my doctor about the fire in my leg and other determining factors, I was finally diagnosed.”

Recounting his response after solving this long-plaguing dilemma, he remembers, “breaking down in tears, sobbing, even though knowing the nightmare doesn’t necessarily make it better.”

There is no cure for CRPS, but Paul’s treatment has been a multi-pronged approach. Outside of cannabis, non-opioid painkillers, and physical therapy, he received spinal surgery to implant electrical diodes and a battery in his back. This method sends electrical charges down the spine to the leg and scrambles the pain signal.

“Without this surgery, I would still be unable to walk and trapped in my house,” Paul said.

But Paul is not defined by his condition. This Amish Country resident is a fan of both the Sixers and the Nets, the former as a case of proximity and the latter as a personal promise to root for a Brooklyn-based team after the heartbreaking departure of the Dodgers baseball team that his father witnessed. That said, his favorite player was an easy choice.

“[Russell] Westbrook, I loved watching him play when he was with the Thunder.”

He’s also a former journalist and satirist, both indicative of his thorough analytical nature of the game and his dry wit on Threads. “I absolutely love looking at a complete slate of games, looking at all the stats and PopcornMachine’s on-court rotations. But I try to include humor and personal lessons of everything I have gone through.”

Paul’s even a musician, recently recording his debut album Wirehound. But his biggest accomplishment is being a loving, caring father to his two boys.

“I love spending time with my family and helping my boys grow into good dudes as a stay-at-home dad.”  

When thinking about how his condition has shaped his mindset, Paul was methodical.

“I really know how hard it is to get through this stuff, to find the motivation to keep fighting even on the bad days. I know how much you want to stop just because the pain is so much. If you live through that, and you understand that we only have one shot at life and so many years to live it, you understand that you need to make the most of every second of every day. You never know when you’ll lose it all.”

It’s also given him a deeper appreciation of the players we see each week.

“I think we should appreciate how disabling some injuries can be and have more compassion for professional athletes who need their bodies to do their jobs. We shouldn’t try to force people to come back from injury or call them derogatory names because they need extra time to recover.”

Paul is more than just a valuable asset in the writing room or a reservoir of knowledge for basketball. He is an embodiment of how we can be pushed to immeasurable limits and still find the motivation we need to survive. His family, his writing, his love of the game, and his thoughtful nature have all given him an inner strength that we should all strive to have.

A chronic spirit.

Learn more about CRPS and support groups such as the Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Syndrome Association.