I felt a lump in my breast last Thursday. There was a red spot about the size of my thumbprint and it was hot and sore. I called the gynecologist and they got me in Friday morning. By that point the spot had grown to the side of a half-dollar. It was very red, painful and hot and still had a lump under it. When I walked in I told her it seemed like mastitis but that was crazy because I stopped nursing more than five years ago. (Mastitis is an infection in the breast tissue that usually appears in nursing women. It apparently can appear years later.)
I had terrible yeast infections on my breast with my first baby but I never had mastitis. I remembered other friends having it when they returned to work and weren’t able to nurse or pump when they needed to and they got infected. I remember them being out of work for a week trying to recover.
The doctor examined me and seemed to think it is mastitis. However, there is a rare form a cancer that can present at the skin level. She put me on antibiotic and then told me to set up a mammogram and ultra sound for that day and then they were planning a biopsy for Tuesday if it didn’t look better. The mammogram place said they couldn’t see me until June 18. I called the nurse line back to tell them. A few hours later I got a call saying I had an appointment for Monday.
I’ve had a fever all weekend and pretty much stayed in bed. The antibiotic makes me feel nauseous. (This leads us to the next topic of my kids are sooo bored!) The red spot is much much smaller and seems to be responding to the antibiotics. I am going for the mammogram and ultra sound today and hoping they won’t need to do a biopsy Tuesday. Let’s review that Michael is flying to Brazil for the World Cup Monday night so it’s just me and the three kids.
So I just think this is so crazy to have mastitis five years after I stopped nursing my last baby. Did you have mastitis? How long did it take for you to get over it? Did you ever have it after you weren’t nursing any longer?
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