Breastfeeding Drama (2 of 3)

Start with Part 1.

The next day, I found my damaged breast to be severely engorged, leaving me with a fever, chills, and later night sweats.  I proceeded to nurse my baby on the one good breast during the day, leaving the night feedings to my husband.  The following day, I began to wear cabbage leaves in my bra to soothe the heat and pain that I felt in my damaged breast, and tried to express milk with my manual pump.  I was convinced that between that and the rest I was getting, everything would just fix itself.  It wasn’t until four days after the damage first occurred that I finally called my midwives.  I was no longer just dealing with painful engorgement; I had a breast infection.

That whole day was spent trying to follow the midwife’s instructions for how to best begin the healing process.  After trying to no avail to find a medical supply store in our area that (a) sold electric breast pumps and (b) would bill our insurance, Oscar drove around town picking up my antibiotics and nipple ointment.  As it finally turned out (thanks to the insight offered by whoever answered the phone at the lactation office I called), the idea that we could purchase a breast pump and have it go through our insurance was a rouse.  In fact, we had to order through our insurance and wait for it to ship.  Well, I needed the pump that same day.  And so we paid for an electric pump out of pocket and I began pumping more efficiently.

However, over the weekend, I noticed one stubborn area of my breast where the redness and bumpiness was not going away.  Convinced that it was a blocked duct that wouldn’t go away (I tried warm compresses, massage, even putting an electric toothbrush to the area), I called my midwife back and asked about a solution I had read in The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding – an ultrasound that could break down the old milk proteins in the ducts and get the milk flowing again.  Since my two week postpartum visit was a few days away, the midwife preferred to wait until then before sending me in for an ultrasound which she wasn’t convinced would work. 

The night before my appointment, as I was flipping through The Womanly Art for the umpteenth time, I came across a small section about an “uncommon” problem called a breast abscess.  I had Oscar read it to see if he thought – as I did – that perhaps I didn’t have a stubborn blocked duct; perhaps I had a breast abscess.  We both agreed that it was a possibility, and it was confirmed the next day.  My midwife scheduled an ultrasound to confirm her diagnosis for the following day.  From the ultrasound, I was sent directly to a breast surgeon who could drain the abscesses (turns out there were three!) that same day.

Over the weekend, there was noted improvement, though a lump remained, albeit somewhat smaller and less discolored.  At my follow up visit, I had the remaining abscess drained again, this time via an incision that would be left open to allow for ongoing drainage.  (It’s as creepy as it sounds.)  I also found out that the abscesses were resistant to the antibiotic I was on was.  However, my options of an alternative were a bit limited.  I’m allergic to penicillin, and I needed something that was safe for continuing to breastfeed. This left three options, all IV-based.  And so I ended up with an antibiotic that wasn’t quite as effective but still better than what I had been on up until that point, with the instructions to pump and dump my milk for the first few hours after taking each daily dose.

However, since the week I had already been on a supposedly breastfeeding-safe antibiotic caused Natalia to have pure liquid poop (I’m not talking runny the way you’d expect on breastmilk, but basically what looked like brown pee), Oscar and I agreed that it was best to eliminate it from her diet until I was no longer on an antibiotic.

After going through all the pain and tears of the early weeks of trying to breastfeed, I thought that if I could just get to a point where it doesn't HURT for Natalia to latch on, I'd be putting her on the boob all the time.  I actually said that to my lactation consultant, Angela, whom I finally visited when Natalia was 2 months old. I was told her low palate and lip tie were contributing to a shallow latch.  Angela showed me some positioning adjustments, and recommended OTC supplements to help clear out the suspected yeast infection caused by 3 weeks on antibiotics that my midwives all but poo-pooed.  The next day, I kid you not, I started nursing Natalia more and more, without pain.

Go to Part 3.