🔍 BREAST ABSCESS/ GALACTOCELE ADVICE PLEASE 🔍

[GhostSpider17]

I have just had my second baby, who is now 5 weeks, and I have an abscess in a suspected galactocele (apologies if this is the wrong phrasing; I was blissfully unaware of what a galactocele was until now…). I have been in agonising pain over the last 6 days and just had it aspirated this morning, to my immense relief. However, I’m now desperate to find a way to manage the condition going forwards so that I don’t get an abscess coming back. I am on oral antibiotics, having had 2 IV doses as an outpatient, and a culture of the aspirated milk has been sent off. The consultant has advised me to keep the milk flowing from that boob as much as possible to help clear the infection, however my poor boob will only give up a few drops of milk at a time (via hand expressing; I have a sore on the skin where it has split from being so swollen that makes pumping or latching baby impossible). In an ideal world, I would love to drop my supply down to as little as possible on that side and just feed baby off the other breast, supplementing with formula while we transition. Has anyone had experience with something similar? If so, please can you tell me how you were treated, how you managed to reduce the supply down on that side, and also whether you kept milk flowing until the infection was cleared? I’m stressed as that’s what I’ve been advised to do but I just can’t get it to come out! Thank you SO much for reading such a long post.

It’s not something I’ve had to deal with and from how you’ve described what you’re going through, it sort of makes me glad

Have you given a call to one of the BFing support helplines and spoken to a BFC?

Thanks @ExplodingSmittens ! I’ve contacted my local health visiting team but the LCs there don’t seem to have experience with this, so trying a more national helpline is a good idea! Thank you

I think that possibly a BFC will have better experience.

Hi
what happened with your Galactocele please if you don’t mind sharing as I’m going through similar situation to yours.

Hi @climbinghippo - I’m so sorry to hear that. It is really horrible. My abscess ended up opening through the skin on the evening that I made this post (so the evening that I had it aspirated). More milky/bloody fluid came out and left a kind of pus-covered hole. I had an appointment again to see the breast surgeon the next day, so she cleaned it and packed it with Aquacel ribbon. I went back to see her for the next two days and then she showed me how to clean and pack it myself at home. This sounds much worse than it was - it wasn’t painful at all after the first few times and I got really used to it quickly. It actually ended up being good that it had burst through the skin, I think, as more milk couldn’t build up and cause another abscess. I carried on packing it for about 4 weeks to let it heal from the inside out until it was almost closed, then stopped packing it. The most annoying thing was that it leaked a lot of milk throughout this time, so I had to change the dressing regularly and wear really absorbent breast pads. Now it is like a pinprick hole that only leaks a really tiny amount. I left that nipple alone for about 2 weeks, then the nipple also started to leak milk, so I hand expressed about once a day (the surgeon advised me to do it more but with a toddler and new baby it’s so tricky. In terms of the galactocele, we’re really unsure whether it was a galactocele or not. I am just now considering trying to restart production in that breast, so maybe won’t know until I do that. I suspect the tissue might have been so damaged by the abscess that if it was a galactocele, it may no longer be one. If you have any more questions do message me or reply here! Good luck ❤️ it is an incredibly painful and pretty disgusting thing to deal with but after it was drained and then opened the pain completely went away, so hopefully it does for you too x

Should have said - I continued to breastfeed throughout from my other breast, supplementing with formula for about a week. After that week baby stopped being interested in the formula and is now completely fed from my other breast 😁 they’re wonky but I was desperate to keep breastfeeding so don’t mind really!

@GhostSpider17 thank you so much for sharing your story 🧡 I really appreciate it. There’s just not many information on it out there from people. I’m glad things have improved for you and hope you have healed completely.
mine is not causing skin changes so they do not want to do a drainage with a cut. But the last few days I can feel it improving and even potentially getting smaller so hoping my body is reabsorbing the milk now. 😬
thanks again for taking the time to reply to me fully . Xx

@climbinghippo there really isn’t! Reading others’ posts online was a real lifeline for me as the breastfeeding specialists and even the breast surgeon hadn’t seen much like it before. Good luck! ❤️