More boob drama

Well... although I've dealt with having two benign breast tumors for the last year this has been way worse.

After I delivered honeybee and started breast feeding I noticed I would have pain on the left side. I assumed the pain was from my fibroadenomas because I had been told that they could get bigger and change due to hormones related to pregnancy and breast feeding. I was still concerned though so when I went to the doctor for my postpartum check up I asked her to take a look. She did a breast exam but told me things seemed normal, that I should just wait until my next breast ultrasound in April. I was surprised but thought I could wait.

Well just a few weeks later and I knew I couldn't hold off until April. I had a lump that was protruding from the skin, causing redness and a lot of pain. I still thought the lump was related to the fibroadenoma but now I was worried that something had gone wrong and the tumor had changed or something.

I emailed my doctor (not the one I saw for my postpartum checkup) and he told me to come in asap. He did an exam and seemed very concerned, telling me to go to radiology for an ultrasound that day. The radiologist reviewed my ultrasound and told me he believed the lump was an abscess that was unrelated to the fibroadenoma. I was put on antibiotics and my doctor told me to come in after the weekend (this was New Years weekend) unless I thought things got worse - in which case I should go to the ER.

It was all I could do to not go in the ER over the weekend. The pain was pretty bad and I was popping ibuprofen every 6 hours. I knew this abscess had to be drained asap no matter how much that would hurt. My doctor agreed when I went to my appointment and did an I&D (incision and drainage) on the spot. OUCH!

Basically, I had developed mastitis sometime after delivering. Mastitis is an infection or inflammation of the breast caused from bacteria. I confused the pain from mastitis as pain from my fibroadenomas so the mastitis had time to develop into an abscess (a pus filled pocket). Because it had already developed into a large abscess (about the size of a golf ball) the antibiotics couldn't treat the infection enough to reduce the abscess and thus I had to have it drained. Like I said the incision and drainage hurt and I've been seeing the doctors and nurses at my hospital every day for treatment.

I hope things heal up soon and that the antibiotics kill the infection for good. I am at risk of developing mastitis again since my body clearly carries the type of bacteria that causes it, but I'll cross my fingers that I don't ever have to go through this again. It is still painful but I can tell it's getting better.

I have decided to extend my maternity leave a few weeks because I can't even fathom trying to pump until the incision closes and starts healing. Honeybee hasn't been too affected by all this luckily. She has been having tummy aches (assumed to be from the super strong antibiotics I'm taking) but is still nursing well.

I'm lucky that my boob drama has been treatable but I would still stress to any ladies to keep checking your boobs and go to your doctor if you are even a little concerned!