Have I got mastitis?

[rosalind80]

Does this sound like mastitis? I woke up with a nasty sore throat, feeling cold and shivery and with a mild headache. I haven't got a temperature. I had the same thing a few weeks ago, but felt better within a couple of days, then it came back the week after and I felt awful for most of the week and had the follow up headcold. I assumed it was just a cold, but it seems suspicious that I'd get another cold so soon afterwards, again with chills. Am staying in bed, drinking water and nursing/pumping a lot in case it is mastitis. I can't find any hard lumps or inflamed areas in my breasts though. Does it sound more likely that I'm just run down and getting colds from lack of sleep now I'm 5 months into motherhood? thanks for advice!

My experience with mastitis is that it comes on very quickly and gets worse fast. I had it a few weeks ago and it went like this:

Thurs am felt a bit flu-y
Thurs pm chills and shakes started
Thurs night alternating between chills and hot sweats with bouts of uncontrollable shaking
Fri am emergency GP appt for antibiotics. Red patch appeared on affected boob
Fri pm hard patch appeared in infected boob - lots of massage and feeding

It took a few days for the flu-y feeling to pass but thankfully the chills/shakes/sweats stopped within 24 hours of starting the antibiotics.

Your symptoms could be mastitis but equally you could just be run down. I'd make a GP appointment to get checked out as if untreated mastitis can get bad - I had an untreated bout with my DD 3 years ago and ended up in A&E with a ruptured breast abscess.

It could be mastitis. My experience of it was flu like symptoms the first day followed by sore breasts, hot to touch with red patches.

Get yourself to the doctor in the morning and get checked out asap.

If it is mastitis don't worry too much they sorted me out quite quickly but as CaveMum says it's not something you want to leave untreated.

Thank you both for your detailed replies. Helpful to know the redness or lump doesn't necessarily appear first. I'm feeling better today, not worse so I think it is just being sleep deprived and run down and I'm just getting any cold out there and it happened to come with chills. However if it returns I will go to GP sharpish to get checked out to confirm, as mastitis sounds like it can go downhill very quickly. Thank you for your help, much appreciated.

I hope you are feeling better soon Rosalind

I had Mastitis with both my dds, mine was feeling like I had the flu to begin with then very quickly my breast were very sore, rock hard and very hot to touch with red patchiness.

Thank you. Definitely on mend this morning and boobs feel fine so probably just a cold (or the hot showers, massage and mega pumping day yesterday managed to avert it). Advice much appreciated though.