So. Murphy's Law states that anything that can go wrong, WILL go wrong. I am applying this axiom to my breastfeeding life. I was diagnosed with mastitis (funny that it has "tit" in the name, isn't it?!) 9 days after Genevieve was born.
My vindictive little shit of a doctor prescribed me the WORST antibiotic known to man, which I took because I had to take it. I'm pretty sure she got off the phone with me and did that evil laugh,you know the one: "muaaahhaahaahaa!" I'm fairly certain it was her aim to torture me in any way that she could possibly think of...Back to my story: I had to take this crap FOUR TIMES a day, in between meals. Literally people, I had to take this stuff 2-3 hours AFTER eating and 1 hour BEFORE eating again. Parents out there, you KNOW that this is virtually impossible to do as a mother because you never know if/when you will get to eat in the first place. I skipped more meals in that 10 day period than I have...well...EVER. I could never be anorexic. ANYWAY....
6 days after being diagnosed with the mastitis, I came down with thrush. I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy. After nursing my little one that fateful morning, out of nowhere, I suddenly felt like someone was stabbing me with 10,000 needles in my nipple. The pain was enough to take my breath away and have me grabbing at my chest. Tears came streaming down my face, and I just thought, ARE YOU SERIOUS?! WHAT THE EFF IS THIS?!
So, I called the on-call number AGAIN, and AGAIN it was my favorite OB. Fan-effing-tastic. So the woman calls in two "magic" pills that are supposed to get rid of this infection. HA. Yeah, right.
Thankfully I had a meet-n-greet with a potential new doctor the following Monday (2 days later), which I was just PRAYING would go well enough that she'd realize my previous doc is a moron and help me out in a pinch. Well, someone is watching over me because she was awesome. She knew that those two "magic" pills weren't going to get rid of the thrush, so she called in more meds for that. She was happy with where the mastitis was and said it seemed to be almost gone so I should just finish taking the nightmare antibiotics...
Fast forward another week, and this Domestic Goddess is still in a ridiculous amount of pain. So I called yesterday and left a message on the nurse line. The callback today said I should come in and see the doc, and she said, "Congratulations! You now have mastitis in BOTH tits AND still have thrush!" Okay, well, those weren't her exact words...but you get my meaning. She also made sure to tell me that I am doing nothing wrong, and that this can just be a vicious cycle of mastitis/thrush/mastitis/more thrush. GREAT! I wanted to tell her that I have OBVIOUSLY done SOMETHING wrong in this life or a prior one to deserve this kind of Karma.
At any rate, she prescribed me more antibiotics (different ones--the kind I can EAT while taking) and more meds for the thrush and more pain meds to get me through this crap. In addition to that, I'm also still taking prenatal vitamins and probiotics to combat the antibiotics. I am a walking pharmacy, people.
Whatever the case, I have learned to stop saying things like, "I can't wait to see what's next," or "bring it on," or whatever other stupid sayings I've used to continue my bad fortune on the boob front. So now I will say, PLEASE LET THIS MADNESS STOP!!! I can't take it much longer...I Just want to feed my kid without being in an enormous amount of pain. That would be such a gift, wouldn't it?
Til next time...
I feel for ya, Reynauds (which is the crap I deal with) feels like a lit match put out on my nips. I actually had a case of thrush and thought it was reynauds because the pain is virtually the same. Healing thoughts coming your way
ReplyDeleteHang in there! Sounds like you are doing everything right. It's a bitch, and hurts like Hell but you'll get through. I know that sucks hearing that when you are going through it though. Big Hugs!
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