Mastitis

Mastitis means that the breast is inflamed, and there is swelling, redness, tenderness and pain. There may be an infection, so it is wise to consult your health-care provider to determine whether or not an antibiotic is necessary.

I read about mastitis ever since I started breastfeeding. I have been very very careful. When Eunice was 3-4 months old, on a night, I felt chilled in my sleep. I woke up, felt my breast very very engorged. I went to kitchen and get a warm towel to do some warm compresses to my breast. And I saw a white blister on my nipple. I pricked it using my finger nail, made sure the milk flow resumed, and direct fed Eunice. I was ok on the next day itself. Later on, I read that that's blocked duct.

I have been breastfeeding for almost 14 months and I never thought that I'll get mastitis at this time! On Thursday, before my usual pumping time at 5pm, I already felt some pain on my breast. I thought why is it so engorged. So, I went to mother's room 30 minutes earlier, thinking I might get quite a lot. But I was wrong. Nothing much came out, and the milk was pink in color! And I couldn't stop shivering in the mother's room, and the pain on my breast didn't reduce even though I tried to pump for 45 minutes.

I decided to throw the 4oz of pink milk away. And I smelled some unusual odor from the milk. Fresh pumped breastmilk should be odorless. The milk from the other side of the breast was ok. When I poured the milk away, I saw some debris at the bottom of the bottle. It looks like some many little pieces of dried milk. I was shaking so badly that I couldn't even hold my phone with one hand. And the moment I left my office, I got fever.

I called up my friend Janice in KL as I know she has one lactation consultant that she always gets help from. I told her my condition and got her to help me to ask her LC what's going on. My main concern was - can I still direct feed Eunice? I talked to a few of my colleagues, but no one had this problem before. I called up a doctor from my church who's also breastfeeding, and another LC from Penang that I found in internet. I even called up to Island Hospital baby nursery room to talk to one of the sisters. All of them told me it might be mastitis, and it's safe to direct feed Eunice still. Only problem is that when I have mastitis, the milk will taste salty. So some baby won't like it, and it'll make things worse as the blocked duct will worsen the situation.

Thank God that Eunice was still drinking like usual! Even the LC Dr Jamie from PG was laughing about it. Guess Eunice is not a fussy eater. She was drinking longer than usual, maybe because it's full since I couldn't pump them out. I took a paracetamol, and slept at 9.30pm. Felt better after that.

I still went to office the next day, but I felt really lousy. So I took MC after settling some work and went to see my gynae Dr Karen. She was shocked to see my breast, commented that it's red & warm and it's infection. She commented that mastitis can happen anytime during breastfeeding when I asked her why. So, I'm now on antibiotics for a week and if it doesn't improve after 3 days, I need to go back to see her.

I initially stopped paracetamol thinking that I don't have fever. But how wrong I was. The pain was so bad that I couldn't walk well, and I couldn't even lift up my hands. I tried pumping and could only get 2oz! So, Eunice was my best breastpump to clear my breast for me.

I'm now on my 2nd day of antibiotics and I felt much better (maybe from the help of the paracetamol to reduce the pain). But I still feel the infected area on my breast. I hope I'll be better by end of tomorrow.