Saturday, October 16, 2010

Mastitis

Oh my!  I can't believe how fast and hard this came on yesterday morning.  I nursed the baby between 3:30 and 4 Friday morning and had no indication anything was wrong.  I woke at 6:30 wondering why my back was so achy and my right breast felt like it was engorged.  I thought it was weird since the baby had eaten just 3 hours ago.  I got the pump out and wow!  I could not believe how bad it hurt as I pumped out 6 ounces.  I actually cried.  Then my daughter noticed a red area and it was at that point I realized it was infected.  Checked my temp and yes, I had a low fever. 
I called the answering service to get the dr. to call me, but for some reason it took 3 calls into the service and over an hour before she finally called me.  By that time the fever was getting higher and I was in a lot of pain even though I had taken Tylenol.  
I had to wait until 9am for the pharmacy to open for her to call in a prescription for antibiotics and by then my fever was a raging 103.1 (and that was on tylenol).  It was just awful and I had no control over my body, I was freezing! 
Thankfully the fever had spiked and by the time I got my antibiotics it was slowly coming down.  Even though I was (and still am) on tylenol for the pain, the fever is still here.  Thankfully the redness is starting to go away and the streaky lines are gone.  I was sooooo close to needing to go in for IV antibiotics yesterday and am glad I didn't have to take that hour drive up there. 
I am sad that I am taking the antibiotics, but I didn't have the knowledge and time to do any natural remedies.  That and it was so scary how sick I got in a short amount of time.  So, I am taking a LOT of probiotics during this time.  I had antibiotics with both of the other births and never got thrush, so I hope it's the same this time.  Also, my stitches have been feeling a LOT better since taking the antibiotics, now I'm wondering if something was brewing down there.
How did this happen?  Well, my dr. said mastitis is cause by staph, that is naturally on our skin, when it enters into a milk duct.  Well, this happened on the baby's favorite side and he had made the nipple crack and bleed even though I have been applying Lansinoh Lanolin after every feeding.

2 comments:

Larissa said...

I am so sorry to hear that! :( Mastitis is so unbelievably painful and miserable. I've had it 2 or 3 times ... can't remember now. But it was the worst for me this past March!
I hope that you feel better soon!

Anna said...

oh no! that's the worst, especially when you have to take care of the baby. =( I hope you get lots of rest and feel better asap.