This case is myself...I want to be up front about that, but I need some
objectivity that my personal bias is obviously missing.
I am currently nursing Baby #5 who is almost 9 months of age. He started
complementary foods around 7 months, but consumes very little of them in a
week's time. He continues night nursing which I like to keep my cycle at
bay.
I have always had abundant supply with the right breast a bit fuller than
the left. The right has been biopsied and suffers from occasional plugged
ducts and/or mastitis as a result of the scar tissue (biopsy showed
fibroadenoma which has not been removed). About 3 weeks ago, my left breast
suddenly "shut down" for no apparent reason. It is smaller than it was 11
years ago since I've been pregnant and/or nursing since 1993. The right is
about a DD and the left a AA, when the left used to be a good D. Gavin has
nursed on both sides; sometimes in the night I wonder if I sub-consciously
don't use the left as frequently as the right. Today I decided to express
on the left while nursing on the right. He's too interested in the tubing,
etc., so I pumped the left and got 2 drops in 15 minutes. Drops. When I
try to hand-express, I get the same result. Do I keep expressing on the
left and nursing him (he's only interested now when his tummy is full and
he's sucking non-nutritively, obviously) frequently on that side? Do I want
to take fenugreek (it was effective with Baby #2 and chronic mastitis that
impacted supply in the short-term) or what? Should I just leave it alone
and nurse on the right only and buy some padding for my bra? This is *not*
a conscious decision to let one side dry up; it's suddenness is what is
strange. I have been under quite a bit of stress during the last month with
many, many friends in serious health crises, but life is normal otherwise.
I would think that stress would affect me bilaterally?
Am still not cycling. I take 400 mg natural progesterone and 4 mg estradiol
daily in a split dose in troche form, plus am on 90 mg Armour thyroid and a
good prenatal. I'm not afraid to blurt out that I'm 41 1/2 (those 1/2 years
are very important in our house), am within my ideal weight for height. Oh,
yes, now that I'm thinking about this...I was kickboxing and injured my left
ankle a month ago. It became so bad and I was unable to walk, so my
usually-hands-off doc decided that an injection of depo-medrol in the left
hip was in order. Hmmmmm. Now I'm wondering.
With serious crises such as the renal patient of Pam's for which I'm digging
for answers to the questions she raises <g>, this is a silly case perhaps,
but I'm puzzled and the LC needs an LC!
Sorry for my usual lengthy ramble,
Rebecca DeYoung Daniels, MBA, RD, LD, IBCLC & MOM to 5 in KS
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