Stopping breastfeeding-avoiding mastitis?

[AwkwardAsAllGetout]

My dd has just turned 1 and due to medication I need to start, as well as wanting to stop, we’ve started to wean her off the breast. It’s going much better than I expected, yesterday was her first day with no feeds (she was mostly down to a bedtime feed then several when she woke in the night) and she’s slept through for the first time in her life I had to express at her bedtime and again at about 2am, then again just now. I desperately want to avoid mastitis as I had it several times with my previous dc and it was awful, and I don’t expect it would be easy to see a doctor at the moment. But surely if I keep pumping I’m just encouraging more milk? I feel uncomfortable still, especially on the side she favoured, but I’m unsure if I should pump a bit more? Is there anything I can do to help? I vaguely remember cabbage leaves?

Expressing will encourage production yes, if you want to do it gradually cut out an expressing session every few days your body will adjust slowly.
I did it cold turkey and found the following helped.
Cold cabbage leaves in bra. Sudafed, liquorice and liquorice tea to dry up milk. Do not touch your breasts or put them under hot water in the shower as it will trigger production.
Take paracetamol for the pain and ignore for as long as possible only pumping when absolutely necessary.. I dried up in a couple of days doing this.