Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Mastitis is a Bitch!

I woke up yesterday at 6AM and knew I had mastitis again. I had it when our first baby was three weeks old, so I recongnized the symptoms. My right breast felt like an arrow was shooting through it right out to my back. I called the doctor and got started on antibiotics 4 times a day. As the day went on, my symptoms worsened. I developed a fever of 102 degrees, chills, aches all over and my breast has red streaks all over the upper left quadrant. It feels just like the flu, except with added breast pain. I was so sick I couldn't even sit up, and it was the last day of my father-in-law and uncle-in-law's visit. My poor husband walked around all day holding the baby, taking care of the other two kids, and trying to keep the house in order. I must say that he did a good job with that. But he kinda fell behind as a nurse because he had so much else to do. He felt like he had to entertain our company as best as he could. It's really days like that when I see how wonderful it is to live near my parents. They both came over yesterday to help take care of me a little. And if Guy were working (thank goodness he was off because of our company), my mom would have stayed the whole day.

The two times I've had mastitis (breast infection), it is the sickest I've been. Many women miss getting diagnosed and treated for it because they assume it's the flu. That can actually lead to pretty serious breat complications. Today is much better, but I still have a mild headache (almost gone now). My breast still has the red streaks and I can feel the hard, plugged duct. I dread it, but I'm gonna have to try to massage it out later. With Coocoo I constantly had plugged ducts, but I never got one with BooBoo. I hope this will be the last. Anyway, maybe someone googling mastitis will come across my post and seek treatment before things get out of hand.

2 comments:

Plan Our Health said...

OUCH!!! You poor thing. I've heard that it is soooo painful and a very awful thing to have. Did massaging help? Does it "release" and what was clogged move on out? Not to be gross, but I was just wondering. haha

Johnna said...

It really is bad. Even today, I have a big pink patch. But it's getting a little better every day, and the pain is gone. That's the hardest part about it. Yes, massaging helps, and I do that mainly when I'm nursing that side. With a plugged duct, I usually lean over a sink and hand express until it seems to be out. I didn't do that much this time because it hurt too much. And it didn't seem to budge with my hand expressing. It's not gross, this could help you in your field.