Tuesday, 4 February 2014

Dreaded Mastitis

My husband told me that I should post about this to help those of you with early symptoms...


Last Thursday afternoon I felt a hard, lumpy patch on my right boob. I phoned the doctors but the receptionist told me that there weren't any emergency appointments available and that I would have to call back in the morning. I thought that may be it was just a small blockage so I tried breast-compressions during feeding, but this just aggravated it and made red marks appear.  When Friday came, even though breastfeeding was painful my breast felt a bit better so I thought maybe it wasn't mastitis and didn't make an appointment. I'm not the best at making myself go to the doctors. I now realise how foolish I was to not take more appropriate steps!

Over the course of the weekend feeding on my right boob became more and more painful, until the point at about 3am on Sunday evening that I thought I was going to pass out from the pain during the first few minutes. Plus at least half of my breast was rock hard. I then started getting really bad stomach cramps, and eventually ended up with what is best described as 'food poisoning' symptoms at about 4.30am, feeling very dizzy also.

I then got flu-like symptoms, shivering in bed with achy muscles. Eve woke up again at 6.30am and I had to quickly wake up Sam to look after her whilst I was seriously ill for about half an hour.

Thankfully we have the NHS helpline which is free to call in the UK. The lady that I spoke to was very kind and sent an email to my doctors surgery saying that I needed an immediate appointment when they opened at 8am. She also told me to take two paracetamol (not ibuprofen as it can irritate an upset stomach) with some dry toast which I did. This helped but I was so ill I couldn't even get out of bed to go to the doctors. 




The Doctor phoned me and prescribed anti-biotics including penicillin. It turned out that I most probably had two infections - one in the lining of my womb, separate to the infection of mastitis in my breast.

We are so lucky in the Western world that we have drugs so close to our finger tips. I went from the feeling of dying at 6.30am to a real change by 10am after taking the capsules.

I'm so lucky that Sam could take the day off work to look after me, but more importantly Eve. I slept throughout most of the day, waking up sporadically to feed her. Sam also gave her bottles and played with her which was great. She loves playing Peek-a-boo!

Thankfully the lumps have already gone, and breastfeeding has gone from serious pain to just a slight pain for a minute at the beginning of feeding. 

Hopefully that will get better as the week progresses and I finish the course of anti-biotics. It's really important to change breast pads regularly, so don't forget this ladies - whether you're using disposables or fabric ones. 

I use bamboo breast pads by Little Lambs breast pads which are brilliant. I bought them in black so they don't discolour from the milk.


After looking at images of mastitis online whilst writing this post I realise how lucky I have been. If it remains untreated it can get really bad with the infection spreading and can infect the entire breast. If you notice early symtoms get to the doctors the same day to prevent it worsening, which can happen very quickly.


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