Boob-itis

Yesterday Clark didn't nurse as much as usual. As it got later in the day, my right breast really started hurting. By about 4 o'clock I was super-uncomfortable. Clark had nursed some, but not enough I guess, and so I decided to express some milk to relieve the pressure. I was so engorged that I didn't even have to touch my nipple-- I could just touch anywhere on my breast and milk would go shooting out.

I expressed a little bit, but I had to meet a friend so I hurried up and left the house. Clark nursed for a very long time while we were gone, but by the time I got back home I was feeling really awful. The pain in my breast was killing me and I felt a woozy and weak. All of a sudden, I felt sickness just wash over me. I got a headache, chills, I felt even weaker than before. It was terrible.

My breast hurt so badly that I decided I needed to express milk again. I expressed and expressed and expressed. Through tears from the pain, I expressed. I had enough milk in there to feed a baby for days-- it just kept shooting out. And as my breast emptied, I could finally tell that a certain area wasn't emptying at all. I had a hard and extremely painful place that went from just below my armpit to about 3/4 of the way to my nipple. It felt like lots of hard lumps. Some big, some small. As I expressed, I worked those lumps toward my nipple. It hurt. But I figured I must have a blocked duct and the only way to unblock it is to force the milk out.

My breast felt a little bit better after I was done, but my body felt like I'd been hit by a truck. The headache was still there, I was seeing little lights in my peripheral vision, I could barely stand up, I was getting not just chills but hot flashes, too, and I had a fever. Oh man. I put ice on my boob to keep the swelling down and took a nap on the couch.

Then when I got up for bed, I expressed again. I could really feel where the blocked areas were and I knew I just had to work through the pain. I couldn't BELIEVE that milk was still coming out. It was SO MUCH milk! Eventually it felt like all of the hard places were gone, so I went to bed.

I was much, much better this morning. My breast is still a little sore, but nothing like last night. I think I did the right thing by expressing so much milk-- I don't know if the ducts were just blocked for some crazy reason or if I have an infection, but I'm clearly recovering instead of continuing to get worse. What a miserable experience. I'm glad that's over.