The rare autoimmune disorder plaguing Thomas Wilson continues to wreak havoc on his body and affect his life in every way.

Wilson confirmed the news on Saturday during a YouTube livestream interview in conjunction with the Pickle Breakers' Guinness World Record attempt at Pickler Universe in the Dallas suburb of Carrollton, TX.

Chong "CK" Kim, Geneva Olson, Cristobal Del Castillo, and Abla Mannarino are currently competing to set the mark for the longest pickleball marathon—and raising funds for Wilson's ongoing medical treatments in the process.

The UPA Tour pro was asked about where things stand health-wise at the moment.

"I feel like it's still a little bit of a mystery. It's just been such a long road. I guess it's been a year and a half now that I've been out, which is wild. I haven't played pickleball in a year and a half. That's just weird to say. It doesn't feel like it's been that long. But I've done so much treatment the last three months with so much support and help from a lot of people that I would not have otherwise been able to do. I just have such a rare issue going on. There's just not a whole lot of answers. I don't want to say experimental, but that's almost what it is," explained Wilson.

"I'm not taking these crazy trial drugs that have crazy side effects. That's not what we're doing, but really I'm doing a plasma exchange kind of process, just literally cleaning out my blood, trying to get all the antibodies out. The core of the issue is an autoimmune disease. It's super rare. It's attacking my nervous system, which affects my muscles. I have numbness, like bending my arms. My hands go numb. Holding a phone is tough, switching hands, or if I'm driving, my arms go numb. Breathing is the number one issue, like I can never, ever take a deep breath. I haven't been able to yawn in a year and a half. It's wild because the first six months was so bad. I was like, 'I don't want to be here.' I wasn't like suicidal or anything, but when you feel like you're suffocating and you can't get relief ever, you go a little nuts," he continued.

"I think you just kind of learn to cope with it because you have to. You don't have a choice. I've gotten maybe a little bit better, because the first six months I was like, 'I can't walk down the hallway.' They were giving me bad outcomes, bad potential outcomes that I don't even want to talk about, but obviously those things didn't happen, and I've been relatively stable, but still like a pretty low baseline of functionality. I can't do anything active. I try to swing some golf clubs sometimes because it's at least getting outside and not really cardio, but I try to do what I can, go on like little mini walks now if I can. But even that, my lungs just can't really take it," he added.

As much as Wilson would love to return to the court, that isn't in the cards right now.

Being healthy for his family is the primary concern.

"People are always like, 'Hey, when are you gonna play pickball again?' I'm like, 'I don't know, but when am I gonna be able to chase my daughter around the house again?' That's the priority," he shared. "Of course I would love to play pickball again. That's my goal, and I'm hoping with this treatment, I'll be on the way to doing that, but first things first."

Needless to say, Wilson is facing a climb of epic proportions.

He would give anything for a sense of normalcy.

"I think about it all the time. I talk to my wife about that. I'm like, 'If somehow these treatments help or I start to improve, and I feel like I can breathe a little bit more, I think I'll just like collapse to the ground in just disbelief.' It's tough to let my mind go there. If I really think about my symptoms, I have to stay distracted all the time, because if I'm sitting there, especially at night is the toughest, if I think about my situation too much, I can get into panic mode real quick," he mentioned.

"My wife is always having to talk me off a ledge, just trying to keep me calm, especially because I have a low baseline that's always bad, but then I have these dips where it gets like—anything worse than what I'm dealing with at my baseline—it's just not okay, it's not good, and I just start to freak out. It's like you're suffocating with no relief. No inhaler does anything. No CPAPs. No BiPAPs. Nothing gives relief. It's insane," he added.

One activity that has kept Wilson's spirits up, however, is doing commentary at tournaments for Pickleballtv.

Being around his fellow players has meant a lot.

"Between treatments, when I can make it out, it's been fun. It's the closest I can get to playing pickleball right now, so to be kind of in the action a little bit, be back on the scene, around the community that I was so involved in, and friends still on the tour, and just the amount of support that I continue to have because it feels like I've been gone for so long," he said.

"I show up to a tournament and people are just so gracious. I still feel plugged in, because I didn't show up to a tournament for about a year, and it's almost like, 'Is anyone gonna remember you? Are you still gonna have the same friends that you did?' But, I've been received with just welcoming arms, and it's been amazing. It's good to be back, at least in some capacity, and I'm gonna try to do that maybe a little bit more next year if I'm able to," he concluded.

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