Dear Lactnetters:
First this is Bonnie Douglas, LLLLeader posting for the first time.  I have
enjoyed lurking but now felt compelled to share my experience as a mom with
accessory breast tissue in her left armpit that was painfully engorged when
my milk came in and felt like a "golf ball" as someone related.  Although
there is no nipple there was an opening to the skin which I could squeeze
some milk through.  Incidentally my nipple on that side is severely inverted
and is ungraspable and never responded to prenatal treatment with shells,
Hoffman Technique or with postpartum pumping.  I found if I squeezed out a
little underarm while in the shower then iced it helped with comfort.  I had
no success latching any of my three newborns on that side except with a
nipple shield which I abandoned once a crack on my right nipple healed.  I
chose to nurse on one side only and the engorged ball diminished.  Although
I'm 3 yrs. post-weaning my last child I still find that armpit area swells
before I get a period and since I'm in that premenopausal, irregular cycle
stage I find I can tell when I am going to have a period because of the
discomfort.  Almost handy!

I've been interested to hear birth stories.  I recall attending a LLL
conference in Seattle where Penny Simkin, PT gave a wonderful lecture on
healing the birth and the lasting memories women have.  She related talking
to 90 year olds who remember vividly things that happened or were said to
them at the birth of their children.  She is with the Childbirth Education
Association of Seattle and has written some books I believe.  It was
especially healing to me to be able to breastfeed because I had horrible
births and each birth entirely different but all C-Sec's.  It was imperative
that I breastfeed to move beyond the births even if it was on only one side!
My third child was born by emergency c-sec under general anesthesia 6 wks
early after a 6 wk hospitalization due to complete placenta previa.  This
happened after a year of miscarriages that followed the SIDS death of my
second child at 2 mo. pp.  (Luckily I was still nursing my 2 yo firstborn
against the advice of the pediatrician when we lost our son)  Nursing
brought my focus away from me and to the baby and was such a gift.

Also when I was in the hospital for six weeks every change of nurse would
ask "is this your first child" and I would cry because I'd end up relating
the death of my son.  If only they would have asked "do you have other
children at home" instead I could have said "yes, one daughter".  I wrote
the hospital and explained that the nurses were making conversation and
suggested the wording above would be safer.  If you needed to know "if this
was my first child" it was in the chart.

Thanks for listening! Bonnie Douglas,LLLL