Mastitis is EVIL

Choosing to breast feed can be stressful, time consuming and exhausting. Not to mention any of the complications that can come with it.

First of all you have to wait for your milk to come in and its a little painful when it does. Then you have to worry about whether or not you are producing enough for your precious little being who relies solely on you for his/her nutrition. Then there is the possibility of blocked milk duct which could possibly lead to mastitis.

Well that is what I got this weekend.

Friday my mother-in-law and I went for a walk around the neighborhood. it was only about a half hour or so, and when we got home my head started to hurt. I sat down to try and relax, and my right boob really started to hurt. It felt painful to the touch and thought it might be a blocked duct.

I fed Lincoln on that side and tried to work it out, but the pain radiated to my back when I did that. Then my skin started to feel like pins and needles, which usually happens when I run a fever. At this point I began to think I had mastitis instead of just a blocked duct, but tried to continue to feed Lincoln on the affected side to try and unblock the duct.

By 2 am i felt like I'd been hit by a bus and I'd been up for hours with Lincoln. I decided to take my temperature. It was 100.4. I called my mom instead of waking Adam up because he only got 1.5 hours of sleep on Thursday because he was at the world series game and then went to work, so I wanted him to be able to sleep.

I called my mom to see what to do, and to let them know that we wouldn't be going to Purdue for the football game. By 4 am I still hadn't slept and asked Adam to help me out because it had been almost 24 hours for me without sleep while also feeling like I'd been hit by a bus. By this point poor Lincoln was being a fuss bucket and wouldn't stop screaming.

By 5 am Adam had, had enough and luckily his mom was still here, so she came and took over so Adam and I could get some rest. When I woke back up around 7 my temp was 100.4 still and my mom called to tell me that I should try calling my OB instead of going to medcheck because they might be able to just call me in a prescription so I wouldn't have to pay a co-pay. i actually didn't know I could that.

At around 8 am Dr. Cleary called me back and when I described my symptoms he told me that I had a classic case of Mastitis. He called me in a prescription for Keflex and told me I needed to continue to breastfeed especially on the affected side and that my fever would probably subside within 48 hours.

now 48 hours later my fever has subsided and the only thing that really hurts is my boob. When my fever finally subsided I felt so much better. now we just have to wait for the infection to subside and hopefully my supply won't go down in the process. it does hurt to nurse him on that side and even worse to pump, but I know it needs to happen.

So mastitis has been really uncomfortable, but honestly the worst part was my fever. Everything else is manageable. Hopefully the rest of the infection will clear up quickly, but if not at least the fever is gone! :)