I had a problem like this, although my baby about three months old at the time, and it was my right breast. At three months old, my first Mother's Day, in fact, I felt feverish and felt so fatigued, as if I had been hit by a truck (figuratively). Classic symptoms of mastitis, or at least breast infection, probably starting with a blocked duct. Â
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Did all the things you're supposed to do for that, but to no avail. Lactation consultant told me to ask OB for a prescription for antibiotic. OB refused to give such a prescription because I had no red streaks on my breast, and according to her, I therefore did not have mastitis and did not justify an antibiotic. OB eventually conceded that I might have a breast infection, which I thought was splitting hairs, but the OB still wouldn't give me antibiotics.   It took me three months to find someone who would take my problem seriously. During that time, in spite of two courses of antibiotics, milk production in that breast dwindled and eventually stopped altogether for a couple months. The fever subsided eventually, but not the lack of milk production. An OB and two midwives seemed to think I was being silly to be concerned that one breast was producing milk, and the other not.  I knew for a fact that no milk was coming out of the right breast because I both pumped and nursed, and there was nothing coming out of the one breast, and dd indicated that she wasn't getting anything out of that breast. For me, pumping was a very good indication of milk production because I pumped every three hours round the clock starting at birth.
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Eventually, at age 6 months, I found someone willing to be concerned with the fact that a previously perfectly producing breast was no longer producing, and a mammogram and ultrasound of the breast revealed mastitis that had developed into an abcess. Once the abcess was drained, the milk eventually came back just fine. (I have no idea why all the books say that draining a breast abcess is traumatic. It was no big deal, and after what I'd been through the previous 3 months, the minor surgical procedure was a cake walk.) The milk came back much faster than either the surgeon or I expected. (Actually, the surgeon, who is as breastfeeding friendly as they come, originally feared that the affected breast was done.) Baby went on to nurse off of both breasts just fine until self-weaned at age 3.
Edited by emilysmama - 10/14/11 at 1:47pm
