Another Battle, Milk Fever.

Argh! I thought I was good to jump off the Motrin - an obvious FAIL! I mentioned it below in the previous post under MOTRIN, but after making that post - it only got worse...way worse.
After taking the Motrin to get back on it, I felt better for a few hours. As night set in - Everything went down hill. I had another battle with my left breast. It was terrible! That breast was swollen to a massive state that I actually cried hard thinking "this is how I'm going to die. My breast is going to explode and I'll be the newest segment on 1000 Ways to Die!"

My fever shot up again to 101.3, and later to 102.5. I'm not a huge fan of ER visits, and although I felt like I was dying - I kept telling my husband (through my tears) that I wasn't ready to go yet.
Now, when I say "through my tears," I mean I'm full out balling because I felt terrible. You know the feeling - Cold Chills, High Temperature. Entire body aches from head to toe - the worst sickly feeling ever, with a throbbing pain of exploding breasts added to it.
So, how did I get to feeling better?

My husband helped me into the shower. I cried and ached and massaged my breasts under the warm water for almost a full hour before relief began just a touch. Once I got out of the shower, I went to the TV room and set up the recliner...and after a few minutes my fever dropped dramatically, my aches began to subside, and my left breast began to look and feel "normal" (for a breastfeeding mom) again.

My DR appointment was yesterday. He didn’t feel the need to check my breasts after I told what had happened. He said it was probably Milk Fever, but I was feeling well at this point. He said to come back when the baby is 6 weeks (4 weeks) and he’ll do a head-to-toe exam. I’d be a little more comfortable if he just would have taken a peak to make sure he doesn’t notice any warning signs. My husband said he hasn’t noticed any pink/red spots on my breasts…but still – I’d like the DR to look. Does that make me crazy?  

What is Milk Fever? I looked it up and found several sites to list it as an outdated expression for the term we’ve all come to recognize as Mastitis...a term I learned from the blog of BJG (See Lactation Disaster for links)

I hope I’m not the only one having all these difficulties. I’m pretty sure I’m not since everyone tells me that the first month is the worst, but with each day I can feel we are making progress – the last 2 days have been as wonderful as they could be.