Mastitis?

On Friday afternoon an area on my right breast started to hurt tremendously.

I called my OB-GYN but her office was closed and I had to wait a few hours for the triage nurse to call me back. She asked if I had a fever, and if my breast was hot or red. I only had a slight fever of 99.2. She said that if my fever got to be more than 100.6 and if I noticed redness around my boob I should go to urgent care and I should not wait until monday.

Well, in the middle of the night my fever was about 101 degrees but I took a tylenol and said I would wait until morning to go to Urgent Care because my breast was still not red. On Saturday morning I felt slightly better and my fever was back down to 99 so I did not go to UC.

Today I feel nearly 100% better but my breast now has a redness around one half of the nipple...

Has anyone on here ever had mastitis? Can it get better on it's own or should I head to the E.R.

I'm four weeks post-partum and I'm still nursing and/or pumping the affected breast because I read you should do that to prevent a clogged milk duct. At first nursing on that breast was excruciatingly painful. Today it hurts but not nearly as bad as it did friday and saturday.

I haven't ever had mastisis.  I highly recommend that you call La Leche League, or visit. www.LLLI.org. ; They can answer question better than I can.

Denise

I've never had it but check out www.patient.co.uk for a detailed description of mastitis.

It says: 'Mastitis (inflammation or infection of the breast) is common in breastfeeding women. A course of antibiotics usually clears mastitis. There is no need to stop breastfeeding if you have mastitis.'

and: 'Mastitis causes an area of hardness, pain, redness and swelling in the breast. It often starts in a section of breast near to the nipple. You may also develop a fever (high temperature) and feel unwell.'

Hope that helps!

I had it. You need antibiotics. Do not wait. They can call in a RX for you, you don't need to be seen. Do it today! It sucks...

Sorry, I wanted to elborate but I was typing with one hand and pumping with the other at the time... I just wanted to get a response out there ASAP!

Mastitis isn't something to mess with. While it can go away on its own, my OB recommends to me to treat it with antibiotics sooner rather than later because if it goes untreated for too long, and worsens, it could require surgery and ultimately, the loss of being able to nurse. Of course this is worse case scenario. To me, I'd rather treat it with the antibiotics instead of risking it getting worse. The chills are no fun and the pain it causes can be horrible. Keep nursing on the infected breast and massage it whenever you think about it (and how can you NOT think about it, it hurts!).

I hope you're better today already but do get the antibiotics if the pain is still there and the redness is coming on!

Thanks so much!

It doesn't hurt anymore at all today but i'm on the phone with my ob-gyn right now as the redness has gotten worse.

Any better?

yes! My OB was out this week and she is my PCP so I just waited and my body ended up fighting it on its own!

Mastitis really sucks BTW...

Fantastic! I knew how painful it was because my mother once described it to me.

Enjoy breastfeeding!

Get it looked at every time, you can't under estimate things like that.  I haven't been through it myself but my SIL had a bad case of it, she was up taking cold baths 3 times a night in floods of tears, she was unable to breast feed my beautiful niece in the end but your health and quality of life with your new baby are the most important things.

Congratualtions BTW.

I had mastitis once and was fortunate enough to have my MIL, a lactation consultant and OB nurse, on hand.  She had me wrap the affected breast in cabbage leaves- yes, regular green cabbage leaves.  I also nursed the baby on that breast (the last thing you want to do is get engorged on the infected breast) and drank LOTS of water. I continually changed the cabbage leaves when they got limp (probably about once every hour or so).

The sickest I have ever been was that day I had mastitis, but, by following my MIL's guidance, I was recovered by the next day without using any drugs.  I wish you good health!