Mastitis, Cysts, and Galactocele's

I'm going to share my experience in hopes it helps someone avoid the pain, scarring, and surgery I needed. There's a lot of mixed information around this issue and with the 17yr gap between research and practice it's easy to see why. I received bad advice from a number of doctors themselves and what I found online including the medical websites at the time of writing this article and my own experience. Not sure if it's because most doctors are either male or older females but my surgeon was the only one who actually knew something about the issue and his wife had recently breastfed. This being said my disclaimer, this is not medical advice, consult your doctor. ;)

First I'll go into the difference between Mastitis, Cysts, and Galactocele's.

What is Mastitis?

Mastitis is swelling and redness, called inflammation, of breast tissue. It sometimes involves an infection. Besides causing swelling and redness, mastitis causes breast pain and warmth. An infection also can cause fever and chills.

Symptoms of mastitis can appear suddenly. They may be in one or both breasts. Symptoms may include:

Breast tenderness or warmth.
Breast swelling.
Thickening of breast tissue, or a breast lump.
Pain or a burning feeling all the time or while breastfeeding.
Skin redness, often in a wedge-shaped pattern. The redness may be harder to see on Black or brown skin.
Feeling ill.
Fever of 101 degrees Fahrenheit (38.3 degrees Celsius) or greater.

What is a Cyst?

Breast cysts are fluid-filled sacs inside the breast. They are usually noncancerous (benign). You may have one or multiple breast cysts. A breast cyst often feels like a grape or a water-filled balloon, but sometimes a breast cyst feels firm.

Breast cysts don't require treatment unless a cyst is large and painful or uncomfortable. In that case, draining the fluid from a breast cyst can ease symptoms.

Breast cysts may be found in one or both breasts. Signs and symptoms of a breast cyst include:

A smooth, easily movable round or oval lump that may have smooth edges — which typically, though not always, indicates it's benign
Nipple discharge that may be clear, yellow, straw colored or dark brown
Breast pain or tenderness in the area of the breast lump
An increase in breast lump size and breast tenderness just before your period
A decrease in breast lump size and resolution of other symptoms after your period

Having breast cysts doesn't increase your risk of breast cancer. But having cysts may make it harder to find new breast lumps or other changes that might need evaluation by your doctor.

What is a Galactocele?

Galactoceles are benign, milk-filled cysts that occur almost exclusively in lactating women. The presence of mammary duct obstruction during lactation is the main etiological factor. The incidence of galactocele in women presenting with benign breast conditions to the outpatient department is 4%.

I had what I believed to be a Galactocele that became infected with staph. The Galactocele wasn't firm but soft and pliable. My first recommendation is do not massage the area of infection. This localized ball is a cluster of infection and when you try and "massage it away" or loosen it you actually are spreading the infection. Your body will work away at getting rid of it and contains the infection on purpose so it doesn't spread. This was a big mistake I made and it quite literally caused the lump to explode and become the size of a peach. If I had left it, I potentially could've avoided surgery. Do not use vibrators, put a hot shower head or any kind of massage tools against it.

Second, use ice. Heat encourages the infection and the milk flow. Ice helps the infection slow, the blood vessels to constrict and the milk to slow.

Lastly nurse as you normally would. Do not pump or nurse more than normal. This will only cause an increase in production causing more blockage and backups.

I combed the internet and found the most information on Reddit regarding my Galactocele. I've linked it below for reference. The first treatment I received was aspiration which is an ultrasound guided needle going in and draining the lump. She filled 10 massive needles with fluid and while I did feel immediate relief, in the long term this only aggravated the lump and caused it to swell further and I went on to need emergency surgery. I was put under anesthetic as the lump was quite large. After surgery I did things a bit differently from what the medical team advised for recovery. I researched and read the studies and findings so I knew what I was getting into. First I did not pack the wound as recommended. It was very painful to get the packing changed every other day and it was causing inflammation, the iodine also irritated the wound. Breastmilk was flowing freely out of my wound and soaking the packing regardless. Breastmilk being antibacterial was enough and I sprayed colloidal silver on the wound between bandage changes. I opted for a small wick to keep the wound open and covered the wound with a bandage to keep any bacteria from getting in. The breastmilk would soak through these bandages fairly often so I was changing them constantly. None of my medical team had any experience or advice for a wound with breastmilk coming out so I relied heavily on what I could find in forums online and my instincts. The wound healed up nicely and left a barely noticeable scar about 1/4 inch long. I used silver spray consistently and ozonated olive oil on the scar once it had closed up.

Again this is my experience, not medical advice, please consult your doctor. Viewer discretion advised below. Providing in hopes it will help others.

Here's a photos of the infection just before aspiration. Infection went all the way down and under my breast.

Post-aspiration

After surgery. The 20" packing removed from the wound. They repacked it and this was so painful. The packing is so it the wound doesn't close up at the top and leave a huge hole in the chest cavity. I kept a small wick at the opening instead which worked.