TMI post

This post is going to be a TMI post about breastfeeding and, therefore, my bosoms. It is a fantastically Jessica story that will leave you saying, "What in the world?" but if you want to skip it because of the subject matter, that is totally fine with me. I just thought I'd warn you before we got started here.

Okay, so here we go. A few weeks ago, I noticed while feeding DJ that my right boob was hurting. I thought, "Hmm, I wonder if I'm getting a breast infection. I'll have to keep my eye on that." I then proceeded to go throughout my day, noticing that it hurt more and more. I decided to try pumping along with feeding to try and work whatever was in there out. I got online and read that massage helps, so I tried that. (By the way, massaging your own bosom is weird.)

The next day, I was in a lot of pain. I didn't want to wear a bra and my whole boob looked swollen. I called my bestie Heather to get some advice. You know you're close with someone when you can call and talk in detail about your bosoms. She recommended massage and cabbage leaves - yeah, that's right, sticking cabbage leaves down my shirt. Surprisingly, it helped, so don't knock it till you've tried it, I guess! And when I say it helped, I don't mean it made it go away - it just made it more bearable.

At this point, I was pretty much in full blown mastitis. I had flu-like symptoms, so DJ got to spend the day in his pj's with me watching movies or curled up in my bed. I felt like a bad mom, but at the same time, you've got to be able to function to do things like dishes, laundry, or, heck, putting on pants. So the next day, per my mom's request, I went in to an urgent care center to get a prescription. DJ was the star of the show - all the nurses came out to see him and coo at him. It made the visit more bearable, because there's nothing so great as showing your bosoms off to some dude you don't know. Sure, he's a doctor and it's very clinical for him. They're still my bosoms and it's still a little weird. That night we also called in a friend to help give me a blessing, hoping that that'd help, too. The next day, we headed up to St. George (see previous post). I was still feverish, but felt a little better and was determined to spend time with family. We had a great time, and I hoped I'd feel better soon.

After a few days, the fever part went away, but my bosom was looking more and more swollen and more and more red. One day, Deg came home from work, and I just broke down into tears. I felt so terrible and didn't feel like anything was getting better, despite the meds and the blessing. Deg took the baby, put me in bed, and told me not to come out till morning (thank goodness I'd still been pumping like mad so that DJ had something to eat). I slept for 3 straight hours, so I guess I needed it, and we both agreed that if things weren't better by tomorrow, I'd go back in to the doctor.

The next day, off we went to the doctor, so again, DJ was flirting it up and making friends and I got to show my chest off to strange men. The doctor took one look at me and said, "Um... you have an abscess. We're gonna have to lance it and drain it. We're going to numb the skin where we make the incision, but I can't numb your whole chest. It's gonna hurt a lot - you'll probably swear at us, but that's okay." So, that's reassuring! At this point, I just wanted relief, and he reassured me that once everything was done, I'd start to feel relief. So the doctor cleaned and "numbed" the area (I think he just stuck me with a needle because I guarantee that nothing was actually numbed), and then cut me open with a little scalpel. Oh, it gets worse! The nurse held handfuls of gauze under my bosom as he proceeded to squeeze it like an overgrown zit and pus oozed out like a fountain. Deg guesstimated that there was something like 2-3 ounces of pus that came out. The doctor kept saying, "Oh... there's a lot more in here than I thought!" That's reassuring. And he was right about it hurting and about me wanting to swear. I told Deg I'd rather give birth again than do that again. It was horrendous. And when it was done, he rinsed the wound out with saline and packed it with... whatever you use to pack boob wounds, put gauze over me, taped me up, and told me to come back in 2 days.

After 2 days (during which I had to change the gauze several times as it continued to ooze goodies), we went back in, where a different doctor (yeah, that's right, I've now flashed 3 different men within a week) re-squeezed my bosom and sent me on my way. That was like a week and a half ago, and I still have a hole in the side of my chest that still leaks a little bit of fluids (like I said - it was a big cavity of awesomeness). It's healing up just fine and my boob feels a lot better, but DANG. It was like the freak accident of breastfeeding complications. Apparently it happens occasionally, but true to form, I got all the random "this usually doesn't happen" things to happen to me. Yay! So there you go. Now you know way too much about me and my life. Just be glad I didn't post pictures. Being a mom can be so much FUN!