Should I pop to drs?

[barbareebaa]

Hello!
Thought I had mastitis yesterday - felt really fluey and hot/ cold shivers along with lumpy very sore red boob. Had hot bath and put hot flannel on lump and when I got up to do l.o's feed boobs felt a bit better. Today I feel better (no shivers or aches) but there is a huge red patch on my boob - though tender not anything like yesterday.
So the question is do I go to docs - does the red indicate that I could still get the full on mastitis or is it on the way out?

Thanks in advance,
Barbs

Sorry for the rushed post - l.o. impatiently waiting

I've had what sounds similar barb.

I chose not to go to the doctor when I had mastitis and just was very scrupulous with massage, combing the affected breast, frequent feeding or expressing etc and it did resolve by itself. The redness took some time to go away and I had to watch the area carefully (I always seemed to get it in the same area of the same breast) as the blockage tended to come back.

Personally, I think if you catch mastitis quickly enough you can manage without antibiotics. However, I know that untreated it can lead to an abscess so I'm reluctant to advise not going to the doctors if you've had the fluey symptoms, even though I've self-treated even at the fluey stage a few times myself.