My experience with mastitis

This is going to be one of those TMI posts. It is TMI for me anyway.  Probably because I am a prude and I feel like anything to do with body parts should be private. At least where my body is concerned. You can do what you want with yours. Anyway, I found out last week that I had an infection called mastitis which is an infection of the breast tissue that results in pain, swelling and flu like symptoms. It is a very painful and a very physically draining infection.

It started Sunday night when I noticed that only half of my right breast was draining. Leaving the other side to take on the consistency of a boulder. When I googled it and found out I likely had a plugged duct, I started trying everything to get it to drain. Dakota was already in bed so I started by using a warm wash cloth, pumped, took a hot shower, pumped and still nothing. Finally, I went to bed and when Dakota woke up a few hours later to eat, it finally drained. When I woke up Monday morning, I thought I was good to go since it had drained, but as the morning wore on, I started to feel worse and worse. I started to feel like I had the flu. My body hurt all over, I felt heavy, I felt sick to my stomach and so extremely tired. 

I went to the doctor who prescribed antibiotics that I may of been allergic to because they were in the family penicillin that I am for sure allergic to. She also said I shouldn’t start them unless I had to because I could get Dakota really sick when she eats or I could have an allergic reaction. Wonderful. By Thursday, I still felt terrible. Something as simple as taking a quick shower had me completely worn out. Plus I had been home all week alone because my husband was out of town. Luckily, my friend and neighbor helped me and cooked dinner for me a few times. Thursday I decided to start the antibiotics and started to feel better. I was afraid to feed Dakota any of the breast milk. We tried two different formulas that she refused to take and finally I gave in and tried whole milk. She did have some breast milk, once Thursday night and once Saturday morning. She got a diaper rash that refused to go away and is still faintly there. The doctor says it is from some of the antibiotic getting into her system. 

We went to her doctor yesterday to do a blood test for anemia. She showed no signs of anemia so we have the green light to stay on whole milk. I will probably try one more formula after Christmas since they have a more balanced vitamin option. For now, she is on whole milk and will get a vitamin with an iron supplement per the doctor’s suggestion. 

As for me, I still feel really tired and I am still taking antibiotics. It will take some time for me to get back to feeling normal but I feel like I am on the road to that. Breast feeding is about at an end. I will miss the bond you feel when you feed your baby, but I am thankful for the time I was able to do it. Dakota is almost nine  months now. She only had breast milk up until last week and that is better than a lot of moms are able to do. I am thinking positive thoughts about the benefits of stopping breastfeeding. One being that I can start wearing a normal bra soon and two being that I never had to worry about her biting me with those sharp little teeth they get since we are still waiting on her first tooth to come in. All in all, it was a rough week for us both with big changes. We were very happy for her daddy to come home and have been working on getting everything back to as much normal as possible. I am looking forward to finishing the antibiotics in a few days and hopefully will not experience any more problems from the infection. God willing! 

I suggest reading more about mastitis if you are considering breastfeeding or are already breastfeeding. It is most likely to happen in the first few weeks of your child being born but it happened to me even though there is a very small percentage of women who develop the infection after their baby is older than six months of age. I would also recommend researching the antibiotic given to you if you develop mastitis. Even though the doctor assured me that the antibiotic was most likely safe for Dakota, I still waited longer than I should have to start it out of fear of getting her sick and I kept her from nursing as well. The few times I did allow her to nurse caused her to develop a really bad diaper rash. That is small scale compared to the other side effects she could of experienced. The most important thing to do if you develop mastitis is to rest as much as possible. I had to take an entire week off of work and I still don't feel 100% better.