mastitis continued

So, it turned out that my breast had become infected with pus. Later in the day after my last post I was admitted to a local hospital for treatment. I was released from the hospital on Friday of the same week. Ugg.
Here's the details. On Tuesday I went to see an urgent care doctor. He looked at the infection and said that I had an abscess (pus) which would need to be surgically drained, but that he couldn't do it in his office because they would need to take a sonogram of the breast first to see how big the infection was. He warned me that I would probably be hospitalized and he called the local ER so that they would be waiting for me when I got there.
Our first blessing of the night was our friend Crystal. Knowing that we would be at the ER for a while we went back to our home first to get some things we would need during the evening. I called Crystal to see if she could possible take David so that we only had to bring one child to the ER with us. Crystal came over so fast to pick up David that she actually beat us to our house!
The wait at the ER was actually pretty quick. The ER doctor immediately started me on morphine, which made a huge difference in my comfort level, and IV antibiotics. An OB doctor came in a little later, examined me, and let us know that I would be in the hospital for a couple of days for surgery and more IV antibiotics. For some reason I was shocked. I really thought they would just be able to give me a pill and I would feel better.
Our second blessing of the night was Chris' squadron. Chris immediately called his flight commander and let him know that I had been hospitalized. They found someone to replace Chris the next day and every day the rest of the week as my hospital stay lengthened so that he could be with me or home taking care of the boys.
Our third blessing of the night was Chris' mom. The next phone call Chris made was to his parents who immediately bought a ticket for Lisa on the next flight from Sacramento to Santa Barbara so that she could help take care of the boys while I was hospitalized.
Our fourth blessing of the night was Chris' friend Tony. He went out of his way to go and get us food and bring it to us since he knew that we were stuck in the hospital.
Shortly after we finished dinner Tony left followed closely by Chris with Timmy. I was taken to have a sonogram to help the surgeon know more about the abscess. At that point they measured the abscess at 9cm by 5cm. After that I was taken to my shared room. The worst part of the night happened then, when the nurse let me know that my children could not come and visit me on the ward because of concerns about the H1N1 virus.
After a restless night (my roommate was very ill and unwilling to assist in her own care) the nurses worked out a plan with me. They would wheel me down to the lobby and I could meet my family there and stay for as long as I wanted. Chris met me in the lobby with the boys and all the things I had asked him to bring for my hospital stay (I hadn't planned on staying at the hospital). After we were done with our visit I tried to get as much rest as I could until my surgery at 2pm.
The surgery was successful. The abscess, when it was taken out, measured 8 cm by 8 cm. As soon as I woke up I felt such physical relief from the pain I had been feeling, which just got better the rest of the time I was in the hospital. Unfortunately because of the extent of the abscess I can no longer nurse Timmy, but at some point during this ordeal my priority switched from giving Timmy the best nutrition possible to being able to take care of my son at all.
It's been a week now since I was released from the hospital and every day I feel more like my old self. In fact, I didn't realize how much pain I was in until now, when I am no longer in pain. Because the wound was so big and it's very important for the inside of the wound to heal and close up before the outside of the wound, I've had a home care nurse at the house every day to pack the wound with sterile dressing. The nurses are all very friendly. They think the wound will heal completely in about another week or so. In the meantime my only restrictions are to be very careful when showering and not lift anything heavy. Jesse joined Lisa at our house on Friday, the day I was released from the hospital and they left together on Sunday.
Chris has been my hero. He has worked non-stop, even after going to his job all day, to make sure that everything around the house is done so that I can focus on getting better. Last night we celebrated how much better I am feeling by going out to dinner as a family, something we haven't done since Timmy was born. I had chocolate cake.