here's my tale....
firstly some background; ds; I bf for 7mnths. We struggled from day 1....latch not correct so milk wasn't established early on, struggled to catch up with the demand but managed with expressing under HV guidance and formula top ups. DS always at bottom of growth chart, but now a lean and happy boy.
dd; with advantage of hindsight, i got the latch correct and supply/demand was great, dd was satisfied at feeds and was so pleased as a relatively small cheasted lady that I could feed her self sufficiently.
When dd was 6wks i got a blocked duct and touch of mastitis....feeding was agony but knew it was the only way to sort myself out as expressing was too painful. Then 2 red patches appeared on left boob. I felt well and ignored them. Red patches disappeared. Thought i had no probelms.
2 weeks later, pink patch appeared on left boob. I never felt unwell and it wasn't painful but had a big hard lump. Then pink turned to red and started to grow.....called drs.....had to see a triage nurse who prescribed week of amoxocillin.
I took the course but redness was spreading. I called the dr again and was unable to get an appt, but a dr called me on the phone. I thought it was basic mastitis but stressed it was very sor. She prescribed a week of flucoxicillin.
3 days into this course i could tell the pills were not working and the redness was still spreading and soreness becomming unbearable, plus skin was starting to bubble with white patches.
asked for an emergency dr appt (friday), and on being seen was sent to a & e immediately as an abscess was forming.
I was poked and prodded and sent to radiology for an ultrasound and aspiration under local anaestheric which was not too effective. exceedingly painful.
They drained off 2mls of fluid and took a tissue sample and put me on augmentin.
Over weekend, redness started to recede very slightly. Could then see the outline of the abscess 2-3cm wide....very close to the skin surface.
however was distinctly unwell on saturday - spent day in bed, abscess area started to bleed.
sunday night was awake from 3.30 onwards as had shooting pains going down my boob into nipple and just twinges happening every so often which hurt like hell.
Monday went for a 2nd aspiration, anaesthetic worked better this time, no fluid could be drained, was told abscess was close to surface of skin so will probably burst and heal itself.
was referred to a breast clinic....dr there wants to see me next week also. he said for women he sees that carry on bfing......50% of them have no more probelms, but 50% recurr with the same issues once the drugs stop.
i didn't want to stop bfing, but with those statistics i will do. I can't have this recurr and face it being deeper next time and require surgery.
Therefore since monday i have been weaning onto the bottle, dd is taking the bottle and getting tops ups from me to dwindle my supply.
i am very sad about this since our bf relationship has been going so well and i feel a little forced to give up due to this abscess, however she has had 2 mnths of the good stuff so i gave her a good start.
today the redness seems to have receeded further and the abscess area remains.
I have my post natal check today so will ask dr to take a look also to check there is nothing further than needs doing....and that i need to just wait for it to burst on its own accord....
I just wish i had known more about mastitis and abscesses prior to motherhood.
with 2dc, i had never heard of breast abscesses before now. Had i have heard, i would have sought medical advice at the first sign of mastitis.....no idea it could develop into something so nasty.
This is something people need to be aware of...not to scare them off bfing but so they know what to look out for.