My Own BFing Journey (Bonus Material)

Bride-hilda

I actually came on here to share and saw someone else did too! I've become incredibly pro-breastfeeding, but do believe that in some cases EBFing might be too idealistic. In any case, here are my struggles.

In the hospital DS latched on great and I even got a little cocky about it, but then he had to stay an extra night without me and they bottle fed him and he forgot everything he ever knew about latching onto Mama correctly. Then on top of that he has a mama who would "tough it out" instead of correct him, and one who thought, "Oh come on, do I really need to change my nursing pads that frequently? They're expensive!"

So, for the last 6 weeks (or possibly slightly less,) I've been having horrible breast pain, cracked nipples, bleeding, and some sort of large lump a little bit larger than a walnut. And none of these problems have gone away. (The initial let-down pain has finally ended, and that's a huge relief. So at least there's that!)

I thought the pain that came after and in-between feedings was normal and part of the joys of breast feeding and I thought it'd go away after baby was 2 weeks so I counted down the days; they came and went and after week 3 I started to grow more suspicious. I researched like crazy and would decide I had thrush, then decide I didn't. I even went to LLL and talked to my midwife but because pain was my only symptom, no one was confirming thrush... or anything. LLL helped me improve my latch, so that has been getting better and easier. So there's that!

Well, a few nights ago I was researching, (it's not just a latch issue! It can't be! The pain is ridiculous!) and I found an article that said, in bold, "Sometimes the only symptom of thrush is pain." So I decided, yeah, that's it then. I emailed my midwife and told her I needed to start a regime. So now I'm taking Fluconazole and applying some sort of cream and let's pray it helps. So far nothing, but it's only been one day.

In regards to Mr. Lump. If it's a clogged duct, I'm having a b%#^h of a time unclogging it. My midwife set me up with an appointment with a surgeon to see what it is, and what needs to be done. I'm petrified! 

To be continued!

 

-Continued:

On Tuesday (3.26) I came down with a fever of 101.5, chills and nausea. My doctor wrote me up for some Penicillin and I'm feeling better now. I thought it was due to the lump but on Thursday I went and saw the surgeon. He tried to drain some fluid from the lump but got nothing so he had to do a biopsy. He took 3 samples of tissue and called me on Friday with the results. It's a benign tumor! Apparently that can happen when breastfeeding because I didn't notice it until I started. Dr. also said it'll get smaller when BFing is over and then I can choose to have it removed or not. I'm just worried that if we move and are on different insurance they might view it as a pre-existing condition and not pay for it. It might be my friend for life, or I might decide to get rid of it now. 

 As for the Thrush. I think pp is probably right. It might not be Thrush, I just might wish it. You're the only one who's described bad latch pain as intense. I've been thinking there's no way it could be latch pain, because it's so intense and lasts sometimes longer than an hour afterwards, but it seems like when he latches perfectly there's no pain. I should have been correcting his latch always. The LLL leader said his lower lip is really tucked in, so he has a hard time flaring it, and that's been the cause of our latching problems all along. 

jlweasner

I had a very similar experience the first time around. I was sure I had something wrong with me because the pain was so intense and nothing I did with DDs latch seemed to help. However I think I just let her latch wrong too long and ended up with a bab

abp51008

I'm sorry you've had those struggles and I really hope the pain eases up. A friend of mine had a lump that would not go away and it turned out to be an abscess. It had to be drained once and then again. She was experiencing a lot of pain. But I think it w

KD79

I'm so sorry that you've had your own issues.

It sounds like thrush to me, and while you may get some relief in just a couple days, it takes AT LEAST 2 weeks to get rid of thrush.  I just found out last week tha