Mastitis minor

After that last post- later that evening- my condition of "all overish and yucky" turned into "hmmm, and perhaps just a little warm, too."  E. concurred that I did feel just a tad toasty, so I casually dug out the digital thermometer and popped it into in my mouth. Oh, how that familiar beep beep beeping takes me back to my bygone fertility monitoring days. And...oooh, yikes. The reading was 102.1! 

That can't be right, I told myself. I don't feel nearly crappy enough to warrant a fever that high. I took it again and it came back reading 101.6.  Well, oookay. That's a fever, then. Taking a quick peek at the afflicted boob, I also noticed a rather worrying pink patch, which hadn't been there a couple of hours ago.  Whereupon I immediately launched into Mastitis Alert Code Red. I fired off a text to my doctor friend (who incidentally had suffered through a bout of mastitis herself in the early days of nursing), asking her if I should commence taking the antibiotics which were left over from my recent ear infection. I had never finished the course, you see, as I suspected it was contributing to Botany's sudden nasty nappy rash, and also because I felt so much better.    

My doctor friend called me back straight away to say, yes, start taking the drug ASAP- she reckoned I might still need a different type of antibiotic more closely tailored to the type of infection but in the meantime it could do no harm to use what I had to hand. So I did, together with some paracetemol. And you know, I felt fine, really. So much so that I got up the next day and went out to my mother-baby group as usual, which generally entails a long chilly walk through the park in pram convoy. That evening, the redness looked a bit worse but the fever was gone. Another day on the antibiotics, lots of nursing on that side, and whew- crisis apparently nipped in the, er, bud.

Anyway- although I do think it was probably the onset of masitis, it was such a minor incident that it almost doesn't bear repeating. However, I relay it partly because I deem it yet another valuable reminder of what I am coming to consider the overriding principle of parenting: namely, "be ye not complacent about anything- because as soon as you do, that very thing (feeding, sleep, health, etc.) will go horribly wrong and bite you in the ass." Or in this case, in the boob.    

In other news, Botany has learned to roll over. Such an exciting milestone- at least for her, since now all she wants to do all the time is roll, roll, roll.  However, she is not terribly proficient at rolling back (from her tummy to back) yet, so there is a fair bit of stranded bleating going on. She hasn't quite figured out how to roll at night in her cot- I think because she is hampered by her sleeping bag- but I can tell it's coming. In which case I predict the already erratic sleep is going to go completely to hell.  Watch this space...

Comments

[Veronica]

When I had the mastitis last week that knocked me for a 6, it was my second time. The first time? Was treated almost the same way as yours now. Believe me, you don't want to let it get worse that how you felt.

Glad you are better now!

[Veronica]

Ah also? The rolling in bed. *sigh* I used to fold 2 blankets and place them on either side of Amy so that she COULDN'T roll in bed. Yes, I am an evil mother, but it worked.

[Heather]

You know what, rolling in the cot only leads to stomach sleeping, which tends to lead to sleeping in general. They really do sleep so much better on their tummies. Damn that "Back to Sleep" campaign.

[victoria]

another person thinking the sleeping might get better once she can roll onto her stomach! my middle son learned to roll over at 3 months, I think because he hated sleeping on his back.

[Aunt Becky]

Mastitis is terrible! Yuck!

Hope that you're feeling better soon.

And YAY Botany for rolling over! She's getting to be such a big girl.

[Lioness]

Well, venturing out of lurkdom to say Ouch, mastitis is wonderful (I had it once for no apparent reason and there was no baby hanging from my nipple to make it all that much better) and also to maybe give you a reason to hate me, blame vet school and revising for exams but - you are going to finish th AB course aren't you? I really mean well so if you must hate m do it gently, the way you wrote it made me a bit nervous because it could have bad consequences for you. And I'm a faithful reader!

[Tonya]

So glad you got relief... and I agree, even that early stage of mastitis is excruciating. Enough to get my attention and do whatever I could to prevent it from getting worse! Lionness said what I was thinking re: finishing the course of antibiotics.

And YAY for Botany's rolling! I bet she is so thrilled for herself, at least until she realizes she's stuck. ;)