The Dreaded Plugged Duct

As my faithful readers know, I did a lot of reading on breastfeeding while pregnant. I feel it's something important for both my baby's and my own health. So honestly, the latching problem Em and I are (still) having took me by surprise. I had been feeling discouraged - it seemed silly for me to be so often literally pumping and feeding her from a tube at the same time.

Last Wednesday night, DH had been feeding her or playing with her in the living room as I was getting ready for bed. For some reason, out of the blue, he brought her to me in bed and asked me to try a different position to get her to latch (I say for some reason but I think it's because as much as he enjoys feeding Em, he has seen how discouraged I have been by the problem we've been having, and he wants to help fix it). It was a goofy one, not one of the Four Positions From Which One Breastfeeds, and she didn't latch. But I sat up and tried the cradle hold, and for the first time in ages, she really latched on and sucked for awhile without the nipple shield - a few minutes at any rate.

I only mention this in my post on my plugged duct, because this brief bit of success made what happened the next day - well, I went through a bunch of words, tolerable, less discouraging, a few others - and really, the pain wasn't tolerable, I was still very discouraged - at any rate, I think the success, small as it was, sustained me.

Thursday morning around 3 am, I was having a dream where I was a passenger in a small car being driven by someone else - I can't remember who it was. Em was in the back seat and it had snowed heavily. We were leaving someone's house and the driver backed out of a parking spot onto a very steep and snow covered driveway. They braked hard and we skidded, though the driver more or less maintained control of the car. I clutched my chest, at first in fear of an accident - I remember the driver making fun of me for doing so - but then I realized I was having intense pain in my breasts. I started to explain this to the driver, and then I woke up, and realized the pain was real.

I got up and started pumping. My right breast quickly deflated and started feeling normal again. My left breast, however, continued to ache and when I massaged it a bit, I noticed I had dense area in the top half which was warmer than normal, very painful and swollen. I thought oh, I've read about this! It's a plugged duct.

I searched the Interwebs for confirmation and found great information on the Kellymom web site. Sure enough, that's what it sounded like I had going on. I chose to treat it with:

• rest
• ibuprofen
• massage (ouch! can we get a bugger that hurts!)
• warm compress
• frequent draining of the breasts through nursing and pumping
• more rest

Really. I don't think I've ever napped so much in my life. It was awesome, actually.

I called the lactation consultant I'd been helped by before to confirm my self diagnosis and she agreed with me. She also suggested cold compresses after nursing/pumping to both help reduce the pain and the flow of fluids to the area, which I inferred then might loosen the plug. I didn't do that, but it sounded like a good idea.

By 3 pm Thursday, the lump was smaller and less painful. By 7 pm, the lump was gone and the left breast was still sensitive but not achingly don't even think about touching me painful. I'm surprised at how quickly it went away, since the pain was so intense - I was expecting it to drag on for some reason.

Because I'm mostly pumping, I can get pretty quantitative about how much milk each breast is producing. My left breast was producing much less than my right breast before the plugged duct, and continues to be the slacker boob now. Hoping it picks up...

I've read that some women take a plugged duct as a sign that they're over-extended and they need to rest or cut back on what they're doing. I'm a little worried about what that means for me when I go back to work, but I hope I can find a balance that will work for Em, me and our ducts...

Weird Dreams

I've sometimes taken medication that have caused, as a side effect, very vivid dreams. The one I remember best was Diamox, which I took for altitude sickness during a trip to Bogota, Colombia. It didn't seem to help the symptoms of the altitude sickness (shortness of breath, nausea, headache, insomnia), but when I could sleep, I had crazy dreams - very vivid, realistic dreams where it was difficult to forget them on waking. I remember waking up, speaking to DH in English (we usually speak in Spanish) as a continuation of the dream, and both of us being very confused. It's funny that I can't find vivid dreams listed as a side effect of Diamox now, but I remember reading that at the time... Go figure.

At any rate, being pregnant has been like 24 weeks give or take of vivid dreaming. Alas, no lucid dreaming (where you're conscious of your dreaming state and can sometimes even control what happens in the dream). I've read it's pretty common to have wacky dreams during pregnancy, though all I've read suggests that the dreams are usually baby related thematically.

I've had several of those - that the baby came premature (and a boy) and needed to be in the NICU for awhile. Several where I've forgotten that I was pregnant and gotten totally drunk - those were mostly in the first trimester where I was trying to get used to not drinking. So far I haven't had the pregnant with an alien/parasite dream. But I'm expecting it.

Last night, however, I had the most unusual dream I've had in awhile. It was very vivid and realistic, with all kinds of believable details. I had just finished medical school (which, in non-dream life, I've never considered attending) and was starting an internship at a hospital. I was initially very disoriented, but was actually attending an orientation where a group of us were being shown where to go and what to do, etc.

There was some issue about the scrubs and shoes I was wearing, but it got sorted out. My group started out on rounds - I think there was a movie-like montage of interns trying to keep up with rounds - and then I was leaving the hospital at the end of a long first day. I'd learned lots, and I was extremely tired, happy and proud of myself.

I woke up, not immediately realizing that the dream wasn't real. For a good bit of time - well, several minutes - I was savouring this happiness and pride that I felt for that first good day in my internship. I saw DH beside me, and began planning how I'd tell him about it. Then I remembered I'd never been to medical school, nor interned at a hospital, and I'm not a doctor.

I can't describe how disappointed I was. My current life, with which I am very happy, felt like a great big failure, for a few minutes this morning. Then I remembered that I'm pregnant and that cheered me up a bit. It's unusual for me to be disappointed when I realize a dream isn't true. And the dream has stuck with me all day, which is also unusual for me.

Anyone feel like interpreting the dream for me? Any good pregnancy dreams to share?

Photo Credit: Elfleda