A pump rental customer has discussed her surgery experience with - on a
day she was in tears because she had been told to wean. We looked at
archive posts which seem to limited to discussions of breast abscess, but
which she found very encouraging because post surgery leaking did
eventually stop. She gave me permission to post her story and we are
eager for your comments.

Baby is 6 months old, they have had a satisfying and uneventful
breastfeeding relationship. Mother noticed a lump in the lower left
quadrant of her left breast, very near the chest wall. Found a surgeon
who had at least breastfed her own child until about 7 months and was
positive about continuing breastfeeding. Mom was very conscientious about
preparing for surgery (pumping extra milk) and trying to limit the impact
of the interruption of breastfeeding on her baby.

Surgeon called the procedure a lumpectomy for a lactating adenoma.
Described to mom that one of the "cul-de-sacs" of the duct system was cut
(or removed). Said she cauterized the interconnections and thought it
would heal.

Breastfeeding and healing seemed to be progressing well. At about 10 days
after surgery, mom noticed some swelling and tenderness and the next day
the incision broke open and was leaking milk. She panicked, couldn't see
her own surgeon, saw the on-call surgeon in the practice who recommended
weaning. It was after that I talked with her for the first time since the
surgery (perhaps she was bring the pump back - don't remember). She had
cried all the way home from the doctor's office and spilled the story all
out at my first "How are you doing?"

With many protestations that I am not a health care provider, I shared
with her things I've read here about breast surgery, discontinuing
breastfeeding, the healing properties of breastmilk. It sounded to me
like a duct had been cut, could not drain for those 10 days and then
broke through. I shared my understanding that weaning is usually not the
best and first resort with most any of these problems. She said no one,
including the surgeon, had ever explained to her the possibility of
severing a duct or of the possible symptoms, much less discuss strategies
for continuing to breastfeed if this did happen.

I encouraged the mom to continue nursing, at least until she could get
more information. If nothing else, there was no reason to wean from the
unaffected side and she could continue doing one sided nursing. Of
course, she didn't have that information previously either. She saw her
own doctor who said she (the doc) really didn't know what to do at this
point.

After reading some of the Lactnet posts in the archives, she has decided
to keep nursing, using some of the strategies in the first hand accounts,
and see what happens. It is somewhat distressing to her to be leaking
what seems like "lots" of milk at each feed, but she is willing to let
that side dry up and continue on the other side if she gets weary of
fiddling with it.

But can anyone shed any light? Including info that might be passed on to
the surgeon.

Many, many thanks.

Sue

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Sue Petracek              * [log in to unmask]
Bosom Buddies, Inc.       * www.bosombuddies.com
(888) 860-0041 Toll Free  * Helping mothers breastfeed successfully
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