Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Mastitis on a Holiday Weekend

Friday evening, I was at my parents' house. Around 8-9pm, I started getting the chills. My left breast was feeling engorged and tender. I told my mom, "I think I'm coming down with mastitis."

Friday night, I was feverish.

Saturday, the fever kept getting worse. I was hot/cold/hot/cold. Achy. Sore. Headache. Tired. Feverish. Miserable. The soles of my feet hurt! My left breast had a red spot over the most tender part. I got a blessing from the hubs and my dad. At 4pm, my fever was over 102 degrees F. (That's pretty high for me, considering my normal body temperature is normally much lower than average...usually around 96-97.) I took some ibuprofen, which was the only medication in our whole apartment that would do a single thing for me. A couple hours later, my fever broke in a massive, bed-drenching sweat. I felt better...a little.

Saturday night, the fever came and went.

Sunday morning, I still had a little fever. I took more ibuprofen. The red spot on my left breast had spread to cover almost half of the breast. I had a feeling I needed to see a doctor to get antibiotics. But, I don't have a regular doctor. And it was a Sunday. And the next day was Labor Day.

Sunday late morning, the hubs and I dropped Bug off at my parents' house, went to the local Urgent Care. The doc took note of my situation, and gave me a prescription for antibiotics. We then went and got the script filled at the Kroger pharmacy.

I am feeling -much- better, physically and mentally, about the mastitis. I think it was caused by the cracked nipples I had during Gizmo's first week. He had a rough time figuring out how to latch on properly. He's getting better at it now. It has been such a long time since I've needed to go to a doctor for an illness! And it's been a really, really long time since I've needed medication!

Oh, I can't believe I'm on antibiotics! All I can think about is that I'm going to get thrush next. I've cut out sugar...as much as possible (which is a HUGE thing for me)...and I'm planning on going to get some probiotics (the ones I -had- in my fridge are expired, so I don't trust them to keep the yeasties at bay) today. That is, if my stinkin' toddler will take a nap. I refuse to go out of the house with him being cranky. Especially since it will be my first solo outing with two kids!

This mom-of-two thing is hard.

4 comments:

Melinda said...

Oh man, I'm so sorry you had to deal with that! Yowch! I know you can do it! Once you get it down, two isn't so bad, promise!

Sara, Nick, and kids said...

ooooo that stinks. sorry mal.
what does sugar have to do with it??
i got that after andrew. it was christmas eve. i called my dr and she didn't even make me go in, she just trusted me. luckily kroger pharmacy was oven til like 5 cuz it was closed the next day- christmas day. crazy.
i agree it is a hard adjustment with every new baby. hope you are getting some sleep :)

Mallory said...

Yeast feeds on sugar. I don't want to get a yeast infection/thrush, which is much more likely when you've been on antibiotics, so I am trying to cut out the sugar to make my body less inviting to the yeast!

Veronica said...

I had mastitis after I had Cal (for probably the same reasons, cracked nipples from a bad first week of nursing). It was also a holiday weekend... the 4th of July! Mine was not as bad though, I did get a fever, aches, and extremly sore brests, but the little guy helped to get rid of it before it got too bad, YAY!