Coronavirus hit Braves’ Freeman ‘like a ton of bricks’
Now symptom-free, first baseman says he feared for his life when high fever spiked
Freddie Freeman emerged from the tunnel in the Truist Park home dugout and stepped onto the field Saturday for the first time since battling severe coronavirus symptoms with a renewed perspective.
The Atlanta Braves first baseman had completed his quarantine and was eager to rejoin his teammates and regain a sense of normalcy in the wake of what he had experienced. Though Saturday marked his ninth day without symptoms, he couldn’t guarantee that he’d be ready for Friday’s opening day matchup against the Mets in New York.
“I tested negative on the intake and felt great on Tuesday (June 30). Then Thursday (July 2) morning, 36 hours after, I woke up at about 5 a.m. with full body aches,” Freeman told reporters Saturday. “I didn’t know — it didn’t cross my mind that it was coronavirus when I woke up that morning. We were on California time, I went to bed late and didn’t get enough sleep. So I took some Tylenol, some Zzzquil and finally got back to bed. Then I woke up around 11:30 and I immediately grabbed my phone and texted my wife and said, ‘Something is wrong. I need you to bring a thermometer.’ They gunned my forehead and it said 102 fever. I looked at it and said, ‘I think I need to call (Braves trainer) George (Poulis). I think something is different.’
“So I called George. They got me an appointment at Emory and I did a nasal swab, which isn’t fun,” Freeman continued. “I got those results Friday night (July 3) and I was positive. The crazy thing is, Friday morning, I woke up in a pool of sweat, gunned my forehead and it said 98.2, so I had no fever that morning. And that was 7:30 in the morning.
“So I went, since I couldn’t come to the field, I had to wait for that test. I threw, I hit, I worked out and I ran at my house and felt completely fine. By 2 p.m., it hit me like a ton of bricks. I came back and I was like, ‘Wow. I’m just not feeling very good.’ And then it just kind of snowballed after that.
“Friday night, that was the scariest night for me,” Freeman said.
“I spiked to a 104.5 fever. Thankfully, George wasn’t awake when I texted him because I probably would’ve gone to the hospital. Ten minutes after that, I gunned my forehead again and I was 103.8, then I was 103.2, 103.6. So I was like, all right, ‘If I go above 104 again, I’ll probably have to start ringing the phone and try to figure this out.”
Freeman’s wife, Chelsea, detailed her husband’s struggles in an Instagram post on July 4, stating that “he is someone who rarely gets sick” but “this virus hit him like a ton of bricks” as he was suffering from “body aches, headaches, chills and a fever.”
Freeman, 30, said Saturday that his experience drove him to the point of communicating with a higher power.
“I said a little prayer that night. I’ve never been that hot before,” Freeman said.
“My body was really, really hot. So I said, ‘Please don’t take me.’ I wasn’t ready. It got a little worrisome that night for me. I took some Nyquil, Tylenol and I was able to go to sleep. I was just scared to go to bed. I was scared if I spiked even higher when I was sleeping what would happen. I woke up at 7 a.m. the next morning and I was 101.5, so I was like, ‘Whew. I can take the 101.’ Friday night was my worst night.”
The four-time all-star said his fever broke on July 6, but through that Thursday, he’d get dizzy after standing up and would have to sit back down.
“Trying to tell my three-year-old not to come around me was a little difficult,” he said.
“I wore masks, gloves, I was playing cars with them. Ten minutes after playing cars with them and stuff like that, I’d have to sit down. I was a little fatigued and tired. And then every three hours it felt like I had to take a nap.”
Freeman said he was growing impatient waiting for test results but finally heard back from Paulis on Friday morning saying he had consecutive negative coronavirus test results.
“He goes, ‘You just hit a home run.’ I said, ‘What do you mean?’ He goes, ‘You have back-to-back negatives.’ I said, ‘No way.’ He goes, ‘I need you at Emory at 10 a.m.’ I said, ‘I’ll be there.’ So I had to do a cardiac exam, I had to do an ultrasound, echo, EKG and blood tests. I got back completely cleared by 1 p.m. and I was here at (Truist Park) at 2 for a workout.”
Freeman, who says he didn’t lose any strength, said he lost only one pound during the ordeal and that he lost his sense of taste and smell for about four days. He said his wife and aunt tested positive for the coronavirus, though their symptoms were not as severe as his.
Freeman saw his father and grandfather the day he left California to return to Atlanta, and the Los Angeles Angels doctors were in contact with his father to monitor his health.
“Everyone kept asking me, ‘What’s it like? What can you compare it to?’ And to be honest, I rarely, rarely ever get sick,” Freeman said. “I can’t remember the last time I ever had a fever. So I really had nothing to compare it to. I just say it’s the coronavirus. That’s what it is for me. I can’t compare it to the flu. I can’t compare it to a cold. I’ve never had a 104.5 fever before. It hit me hard.”