Ahhh @threadedwithstars, that’s good it could be helpful. But actually I can imagine how amazing it feels, as when I went through it I posted on various forums and got zero replies, or we’ll meaning but useless advice to try a warm compress, etc. Do you have any other conditions that you feel could relate? This is just hypothesising, but since the skin of a bleb growing is an inflammatory response, I wondered if it was connected to me having a bit of a histaminey system, hay fever and dust allergies etc. I also have an underactive thyroid which I wonder if could connect somehow.
Now I’ve said that, I remember that my Gp was supportive in trying a remedy that I’d come across in a medical paper - a steroid cream on the bleb, under occlusion. I’d dab the cream on and tape micropore tape over it. It was not long after this that my blebs cleared up with first child, but I was never convinced it was that that did it. It sounds like you had them the whole time you fed your third? Mine went away at 13/14months, but I fed until around 27 months. When they went coincided with night weaning, and also i wondered if the ducts in question just died eventually.
Since you see quite thick skin over yours, I wonder do you think you have scar tissue from all the needle lancing? Towards the end I felt I was having to go deeper and deeper to free the milk, and was concerned about scarring.
So I’m wondering if it’s possible that those ducts won’t produce milk for you, if the exit is firmly blocked from the start? Do you leak in pregnancy? I produce a fair bit of colostrum in pregnancy so if you do may give you an idea of how those ducts will behave.
Feeding from one boob only is an option if one is less affected than the other?
Makes good sense about the exit plan. It wasnt easy for me to go there, as I felt it would be so unfair to give DD2 so much less than DD1, but it’s not like they will know or care I’m sure. If you don’t bf, try not to feel guilty, you are looking at your family holistically and knowing that you having better mental health and just physical presence, when you’re not stuck in the bathroom for ages, is good for all your kids.
The anxiety thing is another hypothesis- DH is medical and thought that since lactation is influenced a lot by prolactin, dopamine - a hormone of relaxation- will counter hyperlactation. And sorry if a bit woo for you, but I think on an energy level, stress creates stiffness and blockage, where relaxation helps flow and comfort. This time I definitely felt a reduction in the frequency of my blocked ducts when I made a decision to relax and take the cues from my body/ baby.
Oh and massage technique! So to get the thickened milk - to clarify this didntreally work with blebs, this is more my current boob maintenance/ prevention schedule! So something along these lines for general massage player.vimeo.com/video/65196007
Paying particular attention to any areas on each boob that you know feel a bit more thickened or difficult to drain.
To express thickened milk...you know how you’d squeeze a blackhead by kind of pulling the skin around it apart before pushing it together, up to a head? Do that, on the nipple. Gently but firmly. Both in the shower and sometimes when the nips are dry and cold. I don’t know if that makes any sense or if yours are the same, but I can see white at the end of many of my ducts, which comes out as tiny bits of thickened milk and it makes me feel that I’m keeping things clear. Probably I’m just a bit too obsessed with my nips after last time!! 