Thanksgiving week started with me thinking I had a cold that may have progressed to the flu. Then I felt okay and was able to participate in the festivities. Friday I woke up with one boob tender but I figured it was just bruised. I dragged myself out of the house long enough to give myself a long overdue haircut and color, only to narrowly avoid passing out as the stylist took “after” pics of my hair. That night I came to the conclusion that I had the dreaded mastitis when I started alternating chills and then fever and noticed redness snaking it’s way across my left breast.
Ten years of parenting, four kids, and 43 months of nursing and this is my first go-round with this horrible affliction. I’d heard about it and how it was bad, but now I know the truth. It SUCKS! I rarely ever get sick and I never run a fever, but I will unashamedly admit that mastitis kicked my butt. Of course I googled my symptoms to make sure I was correct in my assumptions and to plan my next course of action. One site mentioned to let it run its course and it would go away, but seek medical attention if it gets worse after 24 hours. Awesome, I had some ibuprofen, I would just ride this out and be fine by Monday. Bahahaha!!! By the next morning it was definitely worse and at my husband’s insistence, I agreed to go to urgent care, but attempting to dress myself wore me out and I never even got on the leggings that I had dug out before I was back on the couch and passed out. Have I mentioned that while this is going on my phone is blowing up with text messages and FB notifications from concerned friends and family because I may have mentioned what I was suffering from on my timeline and then neglected to reply to anyone until a few hours later when I woke up to my husband forcefully putting on my leggings and informing me that my sister-in-law was on her way to take me to urgent care. What?! I was just taking a nap! Don’t they always say to get rest when you’re sick? Fast forward to urgent care waiting room, being shushed by the front desk for talking too loud, confirmation of self diagnosis, and back home to ride out another wave of fever and chills until the antibiotics kicked in. In hindsight, I can see that my early “flu” was only the beginning of the infection and yesterday after a majority of my pain had left I could feel where I did, in fact, have a clogged duct. The source of all this pain. The irony of all of this is that breastfeeding is what we’re naturally supposed to do in order to feed our young, and yet here my body is PUNISHING me for allowing my breasts to do the very purpose for which they were intended! Mother Nature is truly a b!tch.
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