Plugged Duct Won’t Go Away!

I was nursing my third child when I had a plugged duct that wouldn’t go away.  I started calling my Ob/Gyn office in December of 2007.  By Christmas I was taking drastic measures to remove what I thought was a plugged duct, including putting boiling water in a glass and trying to suction it out.  My midwife left me a message to try lecithin and echinacea.  And of course I was told repeatedly to “really massage it” and work it out.  I did to no avail.

I had nursed 5 of the previous 6 years.  I extended breast fed my first two children and really thought I was at such a minimal risk that it wasn’t possible that it could be breast cancer.  I had never heard of inflammatory breast cancer, nor did breast cancer ever enter my mind.

I remember searching the internet late at night for “plugged duct that won’t go away,” “mastitis but no fever,”  and symptoms of mastitis that might match what I was experiencing.  My symptoms didn’t match mastitis, which is why the receptionists at the Ob/Gyn office kept putting me off.  I didn’t have a fever.  

Finally, by late January, after they were going to put me off yet another week, I said….”look, I don’t have a fever, but my breast does!  If you don’t get me in today, I will go to the ER.”  They got me in that day.

What I didn’t know, is that these also described my breast:

1.  Peau-de-orange:  technical term that means your breast looks like an orange

2.  Red, swollen and hot

3.  My nipple was starting to invert because of the swelling

4.  My breast had lumpiness but not a distinct lump.  It really felt like a plugged duct, and at the end, several plugged ducts

When I got to the office later that day my Ob/Gyn said “this is what I see in breast cancer.”  I thought she was crazy, but a week later I was officially diagnosed. 

If you have stumbled on to my site and have a plugged duct that has lasted more than a few weeks, don’t freak, but please don’t wait.  Seek help.  I wish I had gone to see the lactation consultant at my local hospital.  She told me later she would have marched me over to the office herself.  Even if they think it’s an infection, starting antibiotics means it will either get better or more testing will be done.

I don’t want to scare breast feeding moms, but IBC is the worst kind of breast cancer you can get.  It travels fast.  Finding it early increases your chances of survival. 

And if you have been told you may have IBC and were breastfeeding.  Hold strong.  I made it and am here to tell about it.  Current treatment is so much more advanced than they keep up with on the internet and your chances are very good.  Especially if caught early.