My Pesky Right Boob

It has been difficult taking the time to focus on myphotography, art and blog these last few weeks. This lil lady (meee) has beenpretty busy with Ila Bear.

As you may already know I have had chosen to notbreastfeed Lee Ila for more than her first four weeks. Breast-feeding waspainful and simply annoying.  Itwas annoying because it was extremely frustrating. It was painful because Icaught a lovely infection, Mastitis (an infection in the tissue of the breast.)

When Ila was only a few days old I saw the first sign ofMastitis. I woke up after my afternoon nap with a 100 degree fever and a redpatch of skin on my right breast. I called my midwife and she told me to takesome medicine and keep heat on the rash. I did as I was told and the rash andfever went away before bedtime.

The infection came back but this time there was no fever.This time there was a lump under the red patch of skin. Our house was busy withthe new baby & full of guests in and out. To top all that off, we were temporarilymoving to Philly for a few weeks while Ev was working. All this aided to mydecision to not to go to the doctors

Ev pushed me to get help but I kept putting it off. Ihated doctors. In my eyes, I’ve spent the last 4 years of my “adult life” goingto doctors at the times I thought they could help me, yet not once was Iimpressed. Over and over I was shocked with how little these people knew. Soyeah, I put it off.

After two months I finally went into a doctor’s officewhile we were in Philly. The doctor wrote me a script for some antibiotics. I’msure you won’t be shocked to hear that I gave up on taking those a few dayslater. I could give you some excuse to why I gave up on taking them or justhope you understand that I made a mistake and hope everyone knows not to dowhat I did.

The problem with taking half of a cycle of antibiotics isthat by taking half you are only worsening the infection. Onlyhalf of the germs are killed and the other half is stronger than the half theantibiotics killed.  The next time(there will be a next time) a higher antibiotic will be necessary to kill itoff completely.

After coming back to Arizona I met with my Midwife andreceived a new script that I followed through taking the correct way.Unfortunately, the infection was to large for this particular antibiotic and Iknew it was time to see a specialist.

My Midwife referred me to Dr. Webb, an OB GYN who thentold me what was going on. Layman’s terms, my breast was hosting a home full ofpuss that will not go away with out being drained. The lump had become so largeand solid that it couldn’t be handled with antibiotics alone. Dr. Webb couldn’tdo anything about it but he did refer me to the best breast surgeon he knew.The referral was at a Cancer Center and wanted to make sure that I wasn’t goingto be worried that he was sending me there.

The cancer center’s surgeon was Dr. Jennifer O’neill. Dr.O’neill spent last Thursday morning draining 50cc of pus out of the lump usinga syringe. She also put me on a stronger antibiotic. The lump quickly came backand I decided to go in again the following Monday. That Monday she took out13cc. A few days passed and my breast filled once again. Thursday morning shedrained out another 10cc.

After my Thursday appointment Dr. O’neill gave me theoption to find a surgeon in Philadelphia after the move to continue thedraining or to have her use a scalpel and open the wound. If I wasn’t movingthis Monday I could continue draining it until the pus didn’t come back. Iweighed the pros and cons and decided to get it done with while I was inArizona.

Here are some images I drew to show what happened duringthe 5 minute surgery.

^ This is the pus filled lump in my rights breast ^

^ Making the incision ^

 ^ The incision ^

^ The doctor inserts the "wick" (a strip of gauze) ^

What makes this such an issue is that Ev has to pull out the old wick and insert a new one using a The idea of the wick is to suck up all the pus and bring it from the inside out. grade q-tip end. The idea of the wick is to suck up all the pus and bring it from the inside out. Putting the new wick in is worse than childbirth.

This is the fourth night after the initial incision and Iam not dealing with too much pain today, not as much as yesterday at least. I’m not much of a wuss but I am most definitely not looking forward to Ev replacing the wick tonight.