by Michelle Stein posted in Parenting

It may have started with a small lump on her breast. But somehow, one mom ended up in surgery to drain a softball-sized area of infection -- all because a breast abscess was repeatedly misdiagnosed as simply mastitis.
Now mom-of-three, Amanda Schexnayder, is sharing her story as a warning for breastfeeding mothers to never ignore something that doesn't seem right with their bodies. She detailed her scary experience on the Facebook page of Heart & Bloom Birth and Lactation Services.
"On June 16th, 2017, I noticed a small lump in my breast after a shower as I got into bed. I didn?t think much of it, figuring it was just a clogged duct and I?d deal with it in the morning," the Denham Springs, Louisiana, mom wrote. "I got up and spent the following two weeks treating it like a clogged duct. We did warm compresses, messaged the area to encourage it to empty both while baby was nursing and while I was pumping. Well, the lump wasn?t going away and it wasn?t getting smaller. It was getting larger and it was beginning to get painful so I began to call my care provider." The doctor's office told her there weren't any available appointments for two weeks, but that they'd call her back to try and work her in. On June 30, Schexnayder went to a local ER, where she was diagnosed with mastitis and prescribed an antibiotic. "By this time my breast ached all the time and the lump was the size of a softball and if anythin...