Mastitis

[captaincake]

Hi, I'm feeling very sorry for myself and am wondering if anyone has any advice/experience. I have mastitis. It came on very fast - 5pm I was fine, 6pm I though oh my boob hurts a bit, by 7pm I felt like I had the flu, fever etc. This was on Friday. Since Saturday morning I've been on 500mg of flucloxacillin and full doses of ibuprofen and paracetamol, have been having a couple of hot baths of showers a day and massaging the boob lots. Also feeding very often starting on that side and hand expressing after/inbetween feeds. I'm now on 1000mg of flucloxacillin 4x a day, domperidone for the nausea and the paracetamol and ibuprofen but have only had 2 doses of the increased antibiotic so far so that won't have kicked in yet. Yesterday morning it was just a hot red lump, now about 1/3rd of the breast is angry red. I feel dreadful. Really dizzy, sick, achey and exhausted. I'm finding it almost impossible to sleep too.

Does anyone have any idea when the antibiotics are likely to kick in? Is there anything else I can be doing while I'm waiting? DH has been helping loads but is back to work tomorrow.

I would ditch the domperidone quickly, it increases supply by about20% in most women - you don't need this right now!

The acceleration whilst on abs might mean that although your ab is a good choice for mastitis that you may need a different one or you may need iV antibiotics. If so your baby must stay so you can keep feeding. It might be worth an ultrasound at breast clinic (call and you can often self refer) take baby and feed just before the scan. That would tell you if you had an abscess, which is a possibility though not a common complication.

Take lecithin get some from holland and barret- might help certainly won't hurt.

Keep up ibruprofen

Drink plenty and have another person on standby to help out - mastitis is horrid:(

When all sorted and it will be get your lo checked for tongue tie/liptie.

What I meant to say was get to a and e if you feel like you are getting worse- they will sort your ab and draw round your red patch with a biro so you can quickly see change.

I hope you're feeling better, OP. Keep a close eye on your breast and your temperature. Feed, feed, feed. Hot compresses. Massage. Hot shower/ bath. Rest in bed. Keep hydrated.

Call 111 if you feel worse. It can develop into a breast abscess. I developed blood poisoning from mastitis. It can be nasty.

Thank you for the replies. I'm still feeling rough but the fever has gone down and the domperidone got me some sleep last night. I'm going to be taking as little of that as possible but it really does help I don't feel I can not take it at all The breast is the same but not worse which is good. I've now been on the antibiotics for 48 hours so would have hoped for some improvement by now?

Blood poisoning! What were the signs of that and the abscess?

Nothing! Until my temperature hit 41 degrees, my bold pressure over 200 and my pulse above 100. Not good!

Thankfully, I didn't have an abscess but I know someone who did. It needed to be surgically drained! Gulp!

Draw a line on your breast around the red (seriously) with a marker/biro

If its growing go back to A and E. Or if you feel like you are getting worse (the dizzy/sick) go in.

My mastitis got serious v suddenly and I was delirious on the floor in AnE and was soon hooked up to drips of all sorts. People with "normal" mastitis can use cabbage leaves and all sorts... but it is an infection and can get serious.

I had an abscess, it's a very long time ago but I remember a very painful, highly coloured (blackish bruised looking) lump, which I described as looking like something from Dr who. If I recall correctly I had had more general pain and redness which seemed to coalesce into this hideous lump I had been on antibiotics for a couple of days for the original mastitis. It wasn't something you could fail to notice. I had to have it drained, local anaesthetic apparently doesn't work on infected tissue and I didn't want to be admitted to have it done under general. It was an awful experience. Took months to heal completely and I have an inch long scar. If it does look at all as though you might be heading for an abscess seek help.