Mastitis - help - do I need to go to hospital?

[ATruthUniversallyAcknowledged]

I was rushed to the doctors yesterday with a high temperature (39.8), low blood pressure, feeling faint, headache, nausea etc etc. GP initially feared meningitis until I mentioned that I had a very sore breast. He diagnosed mastitis but was surprised by how quickly it had come on and how high my temperature was. He prescribed antiobiotics but told me to go straight to A&E if it 'got worse'.

24 hours later, my temperature seems to be down and I'm feeling stronger, but my breast is even more painful and is now slightly red and swollen. So now I'm confused - did he mean if my temp etc got worse (i.e. that it could indeed be meningitis) or did he mean if my breast got worse? Should I go to A&E (on a saturday night, with DS?!) or sit it out? Does anyone know just how serious mastitis can be? Is it ever an A&E job?

Thank you.

It can be an emergency if it turns into an abcess which would need draining in a and e but mostly it clears up with antibiotics.

If your temp is down and you are feeling better I would think your body is starting to fight off the infection even if the breast is still very sore. How do you feel now?

I had repeated mastitis with ds2 and felt lilke absolute shit but the one time it began to turn systemic I was actually hallucinating and really quite ill.

You have my sympathy. It is horrible. I'd ring the out of hours gp or nhs direct and ask for advice?

I also found hot baths and compresses and expressing the best thing even though it was excruciating. Hope you feel better soon!

Oooh, this is too long ago now. Hope you are mended now. Very confusing advise. My suggestion would have been to check out the NHS website if you couldn't find an out of hours number to call. Or the birthing unit where you had your baby they are sometimes very helpful and supporting. Anyway you should be better now a week on. Shame no-one was here for you.

A week on? I am confused by your post, josieglow, I think the op was about ten minutes ago!

Is there an out of hours service for your GPs that you can ring? Or failing that, NHS Direct? I can't imagine that mastitis is an A & E job, but then I'm not you, and don't know how you're feeling, and if that's what your GP advised you to do...

I HATE going to A & E though, and would avoid it at all costs, so of course it depends on your particular circumstances.

Sorry, reading that back it's no help at all, but if I were you, I'd try out of hours GP service, as if they are anything like mine you'll be seen quicker than at A & E and if they decide you need to go into hospital, ours ring ahead which cuts down massively on waiting around to be seen.

I really hope you feel better soon, mastitis is grim.

Please ensure you massage your breast to 'empty' it and continue to feed from it (if too painful, express off it instead). It's important to do this.

Take paracetomol and ibuprofen every 4 hours to keep temperature down and ease pain. The 'fever' like symptoms are horrible, I literally went to bed for 24 hours and just had dd brought to me to be fed when she was hungry. So make sure you rest up too.

Kelly mom have some good advice too

Congrats on your new arrival, hope you feel better soon

Thanks ladies. It was about ten minutes ago so I appreciate the fast advice. I think Josie may have time travelled

GP said not to call out of hours, to go straight to A&E, but of course I can't talk to him now to clarify what he meant. I suspect he meant if my temp got higher or I got a rash as he was talking about meningitis at the same time. He did definitely mention abcesses and urgency though so I'm a bit confused.

I feel bloody awful, but not 'a&e ill' if that makes sense (hell, I can look at a computer screen and type, which I definitely wouldn't have been able to do last night) I've also googled pics of abcesses (yuck, don't do it!) and they look much worse than my breast does.

Unless anyone comes along to tell me that abcesses need dealt with immediately I think I'll just crawl back under my blanket and carry on watching the Voice

X posts.
Thanks Godisa but he's not such a new arrival. He's 9 months old. I guess I've been lucky to avoid this so far. I had no idea mastitis was so awful.

I think if you are a bit better then staying under the blanket will be a lot nicer for you than sitting in a&e though you could ring out of hours to check.

I never actually had an abcess but I hear they are excruciating. I often had a scarlet breast with red lines running towards the armpit. Is it like that? Can you manage to express at all? I found it helpful to express in the bath at its most painful.

Rest, eat, feed/express and rest some more!

My mastitis was worst netween 6 and 9 months. My mother could not fathom why I didn't stop bf.

between

Are you expressing and feeding?

A and E would be for an uncontrolled infection usually...you would feel worse and should go if your temp goes up.

Mastitis is awful

Atruth I swear I'm going mad, it must have been another post about a baby who was 5 days old so thought it was yours... [confused ] sorry. But congrats on 9 month old and bf'ing! My dd is 9 months old too and Im still going.

I literally managed to prevent mastitis / blocked duct last week. I caught it early as my boob had a red patch on and it was sore to touch, so just massaged and expressed like mad, managed to get away with no antibiotics (had them 1st time around when dd was 6 days old). But still had a temp etc which was hellish.

Def curl up under the blanket, and get the other half to look after you.

Thanks Ladies. I have a blanket, I have nice cold drinks, I have DP to cuddle up to. I'm staying put unless my temp goes up again and I'm as out of it as I was last night. I am still feeding (thankfully it doesn't actually hurt to feed) and have borrowed a pump in case DS doesn't feed as much as usual (highly unlikely, he's a big fan of milk!)

Turning computer off to relax now. Thank you again for reassuring me. I really didn't want to go to A&E, but didn't want to risk making myself worse either.

Hi, I am currently in the same boat. My GP gave me antibiotics for mastitis and told me to go to the hospital if it got worse. My fever is gone but my breast is more red and swollen than ever. I've been expressing every 3 hours. Did it pass for you without further medical intervention? How long did it take?

Cheers :)