Mastitis During Pregnancy - Worrying!

[Misskerrixo]

Hi all,

I am so worried so I hope someone can help me or put my mind at ease.

I am 28 years old and a first time mum, currently 26 weeks pregnant and can’t wait to meet my baby. However, I have been suffering with mastitis for the last 2 weeks now having first woke up in the middle of the night in sudden excruciating pain (right boob was scarlet red all over and I had a lump appear down the the right side further down from my armpit). I was put into hospital over night where I was administered antibiotics via IV and then discharged the next day with a course of Co-Amoxiclav for 10 days (discharged on 21st Jan). I finished the course on Saturday 30th and the redness and inflammation has gone down loads and I no longer have the extreme burning hot pain that I had when it first started.

Now, when I was at the hospital they sent me for an ultrasound and one of the doctors asked another doctor to come in and check it wasn’t Inflammatory Breast Cancer. I had a bit of orange peel type skin and a bit of thickening. Both Drs had a thorough look and it was decided that it was not inflammatory breast cancer it was severe inflammation tissue from mastitis but they would want an appointment made for me to attend a follow up in 4 weeks time.

Now all I keep thinking is OMG what if I have IBC?! My boobs were fine before pregnancy. They have both grown in size since then. I was a big breasted girl before falling pregnant, and now they are just huge! But I just can’t stop worrying and I have found this really impacting my happiness when all I want to do is feel joy and focus on my growing bump.

I asked the Dr when I left the ultrasound about the IBC and that I would worry when I get home and she said that I have nothing to worry about at all and to not even try to worry. But I just can’t help it it’s driving me insane!

I have also been silly and googled it online and all the mastitis symptoms are similar to that of IBC.

Please could someone reassure me and put my mind at ease. It’s really taking it’s toll on me and I keep crying. I suffer with anxiety as it is and this is just sending me over the edge.

Btw : I have just been prescribed another 7 day course of Co-Amoxiclav as I feel it hasn’t completely gone/paranoid.

Thank you for any replies I really appreciate it - sorry in advance for the essay xx

Hi misskerrixo I know you posted this a couple of months ago but was wondering what the conclusion was of this? I’m in a very similar situation. Just gave birth last month and had mastitis twice in pregnancy which cleared with antibiotics and have had it again twice since giving birth. The second time I had it which was a couple of weeks ago I have been left with thickening to the skin of the breast and orange peel appearance. GP has referred me as urgent to the breast clinic and google has made me soooo anxious!!!!

@Misskerrixo @lola2305 Hey have you two heard anything? I’m going through the exact same thing and feel sick about it. I’m 37 weeks and my right boob is in agony. It’s very inflamed and has the orange peel dots over it. I’ve got antibiotics so just going to see if it goes in 7 days

Hi @wulberts1 and @lola2305 apologies for the delayed response I seemed to have been logged out of my account and couldn’t get back in!

Please try to best not to worry. The symptoms you have are all very common of the changes you have with your boobs due to hormones etc. I was worried sick and it turned out to literally just be mastitis (can be quite rare to have this during pregnancy but if you have had trauma to the boob it can happen, you can have trauma to the boob without even realising it! Like having a handbag hit you hard in the boob or heavy over your shoulder rubbing against it, or if you have played sports in the past like netball etc etc). I have since given birth to a beautiful baby girl on 23 May and everything is back to normal. Honestly please try your best not to worry about it. It’s just one of the things that pregnancy makes us women go through! I was worrying myself sick and it’s not worth it enjoy your pregnancy. I ended up being on antibiotics for 14 days in total and that was also after a stint in hospital being fed antibiotics via IV. I went back to the breast care unit and they literally looked at my boob for 2 seconds and said this is typical of mastitis and you have no other symptoms such as discharge or blood from the nipple. Mastitis is so awful it’s painful and makes you feel rundown, I found that placing a Savoy cabbage leaf on the area helped. So so weird , but it really did like draw the infection out! But please do not worry or try not to worry if you can. It consumed my mind for 4 weeks and I look back now wishing I didn’t get so anxious about it all.

All the best with your pregnancies guys and good luck! Xxxx