How long did it take for you to get over mastitis?

[Anonymous]

OP. It's definitely pus. As for stringy milk, one day two weeks ago I pumped blood and some very chunky milk, thicker than stringy. I used lecithin after that; great stuff. Sounds like there might be more to my case; after reading your posts, I'm glad I got that culture taken.

And if this is a case of "weaning mastitis" maybe it's my pay back for a year with a great supply!

[Anonymous]

It won't get better until you get that clog out so I say start pumping the effected breast every 2 hours during the day. Just 5-10 minutes until the clog comes out.

If there's pus, there must be an absess that needs to be drained, right? My sister had to go to the ER for that once. The ER doc said some sexist stuff but getting it drained was worth it.

I had many breast infections over the course of nursing 2 babies. Luckily I learned about the supplement lecithin when I was nursing baby #3. I think it thins the milk fat in my breastmilk. I had no more clogged ducts once I started taking lecithin.

[Anonymous]

OP here. New antibiotic cut the fever right away. Now pumping and not draining enough. The original lump was directly behind one areola. It's definitely gone down, but difficult for me to know if the lump is completely gone or not, though a sono might indicate that (and whether I would need it drained?). I now have two more lumps, one on each side. I can't access them while pumping to massage them out. Should i just pump longer at each session? (Going half an hour at a time.). I'm loathe to add pumping sessions as a PP suggested, because the increase in supply will put me back at square one. I increased my lecithin intake. How much lecithin per day did you find to be effective?

[Anonymous]

I was taking 4 x 1200 mg capsules per day as a preventative measure but ended up with a milk blister/bleb and yet another plugged duct last week

I met with Pat Shelly earlier this week and she told me to increase to 8 capsules a day for one week then go back to 4.

[Anonymous]

Ah, OP, I'm so sorry!

The thing that I found worked best for me was keeping chemical-reaction heat packs on my breasts in 8-hour stretches, including keeping them on while feeding/pumping. ThermaCare is the brand that everyone knows, but I was fond of the CVS brand for back relief--the heat came in medium-sized rectangles that covered roughly half of my breast and could tuck nicely inside a bra. (Looked weird as all get-out, but at the time I was on maternity leave.) http://www.cvs.com/CVSApp/catalog/shop_product_detail.jsp?filterBy=&skuId=444821&productId=444821&navAction=jump&navCount=3

Really, for me keeping the heat on for a very long stretch of time was key.