Thursday, July 10, 2014

MASTITIS

~ MASTITIS ~

(Mummy Stuff/Parenting)


Not a word you hear everyday! 
I am currently breast feeding my second child who is now nine months old.
I've never had any problems with breast feeding before, apart from actually getting
the hang of it at the beginning with my first child.
Since then it has been smooth sailing, until a few days ago...

I am usually up at least 2-3 times during the night with my son for feeds.
Since he's eating more and more solids I suppose he was just so full and comfy,
he decided to sleep all throughout the night. My boobs were not happy campers!

Needless to say, by morning my boobs were huge, hard, lumpy and screaming to be
drained! If you've ever breast fed, you'll know the feeling.
Having a three year old toddler running around and wanting to sit with me whilst I feed
isn't an ideal situation to be in. That's just the way it goes at my house.
I try to keep her entertained with various things, drawing, playdoh, tv, leggo, toys, etc,
I guess she feels a little left out and just wants to sit with us. So every few sucks or so
my son spins his head around to see whatever my daughter is doing, because
apparently everything she says or does is so interesting and funny to him.
It is sweet, they adore each other, but having him niplash me every 30 seconds
sucks! (Pun intended!)

Getting slightly off track there, where was I? 
Oh right, waking up with uncomfortably full breasts!
I tried to feed him as much as he would take but apparently my boobs were not
satisfied and a few days ago the left one started to get really sore! So sore in fact that it
felt as though I'd been punched, hard fair the side of my tit. :(

The following day I started to feel off. I was lethargic, more than the usual for someone
with low blood pressure and a lagging pulse rate. My first thought was, holy shit, I better not
be bloody pregnant again! Luckily, after some quick Googling my mind was put to ease,
when I realised I most likely had Mastitis. By the end of the day I felt really run down. The same
kind of feeling you get when you feel like you're getting the flu. Only no runny nose, cough or
sneezing, etc. Just the, I feel like crap, have a heavy, pounding head and want to lie down kind of feeling.
My temperature had also risen to 39.7 degrees.

The following day I decided to call up my Dr. for an appointment.
By this time my boob had an oval shaped red, very tender and hard lumpy area on one side.

Apologies for the odd picture, I didn't want to show my whole boob online.
But hopefully you can see what I'm talking about.

After a quick examination, my Dr. confirmed I did indeed have Mastitis and told
me not to hesitate and to come and see her straight away next time and not to
wait a few days. I had no idea it was such a serious thing. Apparently it can make you quite
sick very fast if not treated quickly and worse case scenario you could be admitted to hospital
to have the infection taken care of. 

So I've been prescribed some antibiotics called Distaph 500 which I am currently taking
every six hours which should help clear it all up within a few days.
I think they're making me drowsy, so upping the caffeine intake even more than usual!
Thank goodness no other nasty side effects!

I was in two minds about weather or not I should write about this.
I don't often do a lot of personal posts. I thought my blog is lacking some mummy 
kind of posts though, and with being a 24/7 mum and it being probably the biggest part of my life, it is also my most
passionate. So why not share my experiences with others who may find it interesting or
helpful. This was just my experience. Each one of course is different and should be treated that
way. All I can say is, if you think you may be getting Mastitis, don't wait, just get it checked
out as soon as you can. It isn't worth getting sick over when it can be cleared up so simply
and quickly with just a few pills rather than having to be admitted to hospital if you ignore it.


Have you ever suffered from Mastitis or something similar?

Thanks for reading!
:)

Love Candy!
xo

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5 comments:

  1. Oh you poor things I feel your pain ��
    I had mastitis twice and luckily I had maternal nurse visiting me at home both times who picke it up straight away and helped me to drain the breasts straight away
    It was really painful
    Take care and see if you can get once a night only for first few nights to drain them even a little bit to prevent it in future and than soon once your son start to sleep through the night your breasts will get used to not feeding at night too
    Hope it makes sense �� it worked for me
    hope you feel better xx

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    Replies
    1. Thank you for sharing your story and for the lovely advice Varinder. xo

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  2. Yuck. You poor thing. I had mastitis twice. The first time I had it, my first son was only about a week old. I caught it early and it cleared up quickly. The second time, my second son was about 3 weeks old, and OMG I was so sick. I had to visit the doctor twice daily for antibiotic injections. Thankfully that worked, but I was so sick that mum came to stay to look after the kids, cos I couldn't.
    Try the old fashioned cabbage leaf trick. It does work to relieve the pain. Hope you get better soon xxx.

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  3. I heard about that cabbage leaf thing! Haven't tried it though. I've been taking the antibiotics for 3 days now and it's pretty much all cleared up now. Thank goodness! Luckily it didn't get any worse. xo

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  4. Oh gosh, you have just bought back those horrid memories of Mastitis. All I can say is the pain, the pain. I remember waking up at night in a deep sweat and my boobs were incredibly huge and so sore that I couldn't even roll over. I actually dreaded when it would come time to feed my baby. I had no idea what was wrong. I tried a heat pack on my boobs and nothing helped. I thought I was going to die or something.
    Rang the dr first thing in the morning and she told me to come asap.......Was put on to some antibiotics and she told me to put a cold compress on the side when feeding the baby.
    Once the anti-biotics kicked in, you suddenly feel so much better. Mastitis happened to me with both kids. It's horrible and I certainly feel and know what you experienced candyfairy. I think it is fabulous that you have brought it up in your blog......if it helps one person to know what they are experiencing...that's a great feat. I wish I had blogs in my day so I knew when it happened. I was so scared that night.

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