Mastitis, antibiotics and symptoms... how long would you take the abx?

[nia82]

DD will be 4 weeks on Sunday. She's nursing well and growing (gained 2lbs), and eats one one breast about every 3 hours for about 5-15 minutes, getting plenty as she easily spits up 1-2 ounces after each meal.

On Wed I felt super sore in my right breast, upper left side, and it got worse throughout the day. All of a sudden at 3pm I started to run a fever, and within half an hour had the chills too. It was 101, so I called my doctor's office who gave me a referral to urgent care. By the time I was there, the chills were pretty bad and my fever at over 102. It was 5pm or so I think. I only got to see a PA who thought it was the flu as I have no red streaks whatsoever on my breasts. A quick test revealed no flu (nose swab), so he went ahead and prescribed 875mg of Amoxcilin for 10 days twice daily. That seems like a lot of meds to me...

The fever was gone by the next day, the pain was gone by Friday, but there still is a lump in my breast that I can feel. I let her nurse in football hold to get to that plugged unplugged (in that hold, her upper lip aligns with the lump)... But no success so far.

Is this normal, or should the lump go away? How long does one usually take the abx? I am just asking cause DD has green poop eversince, despite just eating from one side every 3 hours, so there should be no foremilk/hindmilk issue... I never experienced this with DS so I have no idea...

[AutumnAir]

You have to keep taking the complete course of abx - if you stop half-way through all you're doing is making sure that the hardiest of the bugs get left behind.  They'll make you sick again later and likely won't respond to further abx nearly as well, since they'll already have built up resistance.  Mastitis is a particularly tough infection to shake fully, and trust me, you don't want it coming back again!!

[Syriani369]

I had mastitis once, it was horrible.  I did everything.  I got in the bath and drank an oatmeal stout(my midwife said this can help) and massaged my breast, i did this a couple times a day.  I grated raw potato on my breast( lol, i read this could work, who the hell knows? I was desperate)..but what ended up getting the lump out was a hand held massager. I held the massager on my breast on high and soon my breast swelling went down.  I never saw the clog come out, but i knew it was over when the tenderness and swelling went away.   

[etsdtm99]

i have a 5.5 mo old and came down with mastitis yesterday following a nursing strike.. i am on some antibiotic that starts with a c (i can look later)  4 times a day for 10 days - yesterday i came down with a sudden fever a few hours after i noticed a plugged duct - my temp was 102, i had 'chills'(shaking uncontrolably) and by the time i got to urgent care i had red streaks and swelling .. and i was dehydrated .. i had to have IV fluids .. anyway, my basic poitn there was , i hate antibiotics and i feel 100 times better than i did yesterday but i am going to take them all .. and my DD is also having weird dark green poop and i've only been on the antibiotics for 15 hours..

[nia82]

Ugh I hope you feel better soon. I decided to take them all.. It's a high dose but I don't want this to come back. She still has green poop here and there, but I expect it to stop once the stuff is out of our systems. I'm taking my probiotics religiously to prevent thrush...

I think my supply dipped a little due to the abx... I had an oversupply before and now it feels I have just enough to meet her needs. She might have a growth spurt too maybe, but it's weird, I'm used to be soaking in milk from leaking, and now there is none.