Mastitis and Abscess

I feel so bad for you because antibiotics would probably have cleared this up in the beginning. It happened to might daughter and and after a day she was doing much better. What are these Dr's coming to?
Good luck and God Bless.

Hey-
I developed a LARGE abscess from mastitis after having my daughter. I do not know all of your situation, but my surgeon tried to drain the abscess in the office which was painful(but tolerated) for two attempts and then because my infection was soo large I ended up with surgery to go in and clean out all of the infection. I stayed in the hospital for a couple of days on IV pain meds because the wound was left open to heal from the inside out, so that meant that I had to have packing changes twice a day for the next several weeks which included home health nurses that would come to my house for these cleanings and dressing changes. My doctor said that he had never seen an abscess as large as mine( I even required reconstruction surgery later) so I hope that yours will not require surgery, but if it does, after the first couple of days(once the wound heals over your nerves) it is not that bad! You are in my thoughts and prayers!

Hi, A.!

I am now 55 and raising three of my Grans, when their Mom was about six months old this DID happen to me. I was working in our local hospital so my favorite surgeon gave me cream & some meds in pill form to take first but, like you I just got worse. The procedure was quick and relatively painless, I stayed a day & night in the hospital but nowadays I would think this is an outpatient procedure. I don't even have ANY scar anymore, initially I had a tiny scar (only I could see it because I KNEW it was there) I think I had 5 stitches. The Doc tested everything that came out from the procedure but I had a clean bill of health and have never had more problems.

Take Care You!

A.

I had an abcess due to BFing and here's the scoop.

You need to get to the Dr/hospital/as soon as possible, and have it drained. Thought an abcess has similar symptoms to mastitis, they are not the same--an abcess is actually a clogged duct that gets infected. It forms a pocket around the infection which is like a giant cyst and will keep growing until it ruptures or it is surgically drained.
I was delayed with ultrasound schedules and biopsies over a week while they tried to figure out what it was (clogged duct vs abcess) It started when noticed the pea size lump and then it was bean size and then a golfball (in about a week), and meanwhile my breast was producing less and less milk and it was getting more and more painful-
I went to see the Dr when it was about the size of a golfball, who then set me up with an appt to get an ultrasound, 4 days later, it came up inconclusive so they wanted to do a biopsy--again another appt a few days later. But before I could get to that appt, I was in so much pain and my fever spiked so I ended up in the ER with a fever of 104 and in A LOT of pain. I was in surgery the next day with the abscess the size of about 7cm across (it went from 3-7cmin less that 12 hours). The sooner you get it drained, the smaller the scar you will have so be persistent and don't delay.
Abcesses do not go away and have to be opened and drained. There is no way around it. They are also pretty rare and my OB GYN of over 20 years in practice had never seen one which is why they treated it like an anomaly when to me it was obvious it was an abscess--I really should have been in the hospital sooner.
You also may need to supplement your BFing with formula because with the abscess you will not be producing as much milk. Also with the surgury, it is harder to heal while you are producing milk so though some may tell you to keep Bfng with your "good" breast. It's not really practical or good for you. I don't know how big yours is, but prepare yourself for this. I had to stop cold turkey so on top of the abcess I had engorgement. But prepare yourself and your baby for you probably needing to stop BFing, and a day or so in the hospital.
Mine grew a lot in a short period of time and took over 3 months to heal--so again--do not delay.
I don't want to scare you, but I also don;t want you to end up with a 4 inch scar like i have....time is key.

In the end, I was absolutely fine though and so was my baby. he adjusted to formula and bottles without a hitch. My husband and his mother did a wonderful job of taking care of him while I was in the hospital. Everything is healed, I have a happy 3 year old and the scar i do have (though large) is strategically around my areola so isn't that obvious.