When Chelsea Freeman’s kid first began complaining about leg discomfort, she had no way of knowing that the days that followed would be filled with more difficult circumstances.
The mother of three, who is 33 years old and is also the wife of Freddie Freeman, the first baseman for the Los Angeles Dodgers, has revealed to PEOPLE that her three boys fell seriously ill when she was in Texas to support her husband at the 2024 Major League Baseball All-Star Game. However, her son Max, who was three years old at the time, was the one who had a very peculiar ailment.
“When we got back to California, I thought they were getting better, but Max woke up one day and kept tripping and falling,” Chelsea, who is teaming with OFF! for Adults & Kids, tells PEOPLE. “I thought they were getting better.” “He was complaining about his hips and legs.”
It is explained by Chelsea that she immediately brought her kid to a clinic, where the physicians first believed that Max was suffering from a temporary form of arthritis.
It was at this moment that he was completely unable to stand. Tests were performed, and he was given fluids. According to her, “They informed us that they were 95% certain that it was transient synovitis.” On the other hand, Max continued to deteriorate when she brought her kid home.
“Max continued to worsen the following day, to the point where he was barely eating or drinking,” says Chelsea in her explanation. “I had an appointment with my pediatrician, and as soon as she took his vitals, she said I immediately need to go back to the ER or she was calling an ambulance.”
As far as Chelsea is concerned, the following few hours were the “most terrifying of my entire life.”
“Max coded at check-in, and all of a sudden we were surrounded by countless doctors and nurses,” according to her account. “At this point, he was crippled from the neck down,” the doctor said. As a result of his feeble breathing and the fact that they were concerned about his lungs collapsing, they had to quickly sedate him and use a ventilator to strengthen his lungs.
The chief of the emergency room was clear that Max was suffering from Guillain-Barré syndrome at that moment. Guillain-Barré syndrome is a disorder that is characterized by the immune system of the body attacking the nerves, which may lead to symptoms such as numbness, weakness, or even paralysis, as stated by the Mayo Clinic.
When Chelsea states, “Max would need a lumbar puncture to confirm the diagnosis,” she is referring to a procedure that is more popularly known as a spinal tap. The culture would take forty-eight hours to complete, and Max would need a full-body magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan to rule out the possibility of tumors, cancer, and other conditions. When you are a parent, you never want to hear any of these words.
The lumbar puncture and the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) both came back with positive results for Guillain-Barré syndrome. “It was the most difficult eight days of our lives,” Chelsea acknowledges in a straightforward manner. In only eight days, Maximus went from being one of the most severe patients in the pediatric intensive care unit to being released from the facility. For the first several days, everything was so terrifying that all we could do was beg for a miracle.
Since then, Max has been making progress, but he has been had to retrain himself in fundamental activities and participate in physical therapy.
“Max had to relearn everything, starting from tummy time when we got home,” she explains in detail. “It was a hard experience as I went to physical therapy virtually every day. At this point, he is still participating in physical therapy and is on schedule to recover in a year. forth PT, he has put forth a lot of effort. Midway during the month of September, Maximus took his first steps.
Due to the fact that Max’s health scare has been such a challenging experience, Chelsea is delighted to be collaborating with OFF! in order to provide her sons, Max, his twin brother Brandon, who is four years old, and Charlie, who is eight years old, with some peace of mind as they prepare for the spring.
“Raising three boys, you never know what negotiation you’re going to find yourself in next,” she explains further. “It can be anything — from the food they want to eat to the clothes they want to wear, to applying insect repellent when going outside.”
The woman who is the mother of three boys adds, “Thank goodness, I don’t have to negotiate because I have OFF! for Adults & Kids.” In addition, Chelsea is aware that since the baseball season is about to begin, the whole family will be present at the stadium, getting ready to cheer for her father.
“I am really trying to cherish all the special moments that baseball season brings,” according to her interview with PEOPLE. “Freddie is very close to reaching big career milestones, and it is really special to witness.”