Sore about it

When it comes to health problems (for me at least), it seems to never rain but always pour!

First it was the high BP (which by the way does not seem well controlled even with the additional diuretic - last night I recorded a BP of 134/105. Could be because I was in discomfort/pain, but generally over the past nights when I checked, the diastolic still hovered around 95 to 98.), then it was the dang prolapse, and now, its the right breast.

The right breast has always been 'Owain's breast'. Ever since Trin was born and I tandem-nursed them both, one kept to the right, the other to the left. This has stayed until the day Owain stopped nursing. Even now, Trin keeps to the left. So the right breast has been unused for almost a year already.

The last time I tried hand expressing to see what came out of the right breast, all I got was oil seeping out of the pores and some thickened milk solids.

My breasts have always been lumpy. And since I am turning 40 soon, it was always at the back of my mind that I should be going for the usual exams - a pap smear, a mammogram. But thanks to the cost, I keep putting this off.

Knowing that my breasts are always lumpy, I never saw cause for concern. But two nights ago, while lying down, I was idly doing a breast exam, just feeling around the rim of the right breast when I noticed a mass near the wall of the breast. This has always been there but I could not be sure if this was just ligament or muscle connective tissue or was it a real mass. The same area on the left breast did not seem so enlarged or prominent. It didn't hurt as I palpated it. So I just sort of filed it away mentally as a note to "remember to book a slot for a full exam soon".

But something must have niggled at me. The next day I tried hand expressing again and this time, not only the usual oil oozed out, but also a stream of pus. Eeks! I hope no one is reading this while eating!

I could not be sure at first and thought it was milk changes again. But the breast did feel lumpy and was starting to be a bit sore and tender. The more I expressed, the more pus oozed out.

So I think I must have some sort of breast abscess. I have not nursed for so many months on that breast, so I cannot understand why or how I could get any form of breast infection. But as the afternoon wore on, it began to feel more and more like a plugged duct, bordering on mastitis. I know I have been feeling a bit fluey and under the weather generally, and the trip to Malaysia over the weekend also left me pooped. My sleep at night has been interrupted by bouts of anxiety that wake me and leave me feeling restless and worried (Don't ask me what I am worried about! I just get a sense that something is UP.)

So maybe all this could have triggered some form of breast infection??

Right now the right side is definitely tender when probed. It does not hurt otherwise. It also feels warmer to the touch than the left. So it does feel like plugged ducts. But as the how and why, since I am no longer lactating on that side, I am absolutely clueless.

I have made an appointment at the KK Breast Centre and the earliest appointment is for Tuesday. But since I am already in some form of discomfort, I think I'd just go queue at the polyclinic later today and get some pain-killers or something. I would like to avoid the antibiotics, but I don't see how that would be possible. I'll just have to dose myself concurrently with probiotics then. Maybe the polyclinic would give me a referral to the Breast Centre - so any investigations done would be a lot less expensive! I would imagine that any preliminary exam would also include an ultrasound of the breast and possibly mammography as well. All that would certainly cost an arm and a leg if done as a private patient!