Hello all, One of my coworkers who is not lactating asked me to look at her breast because she was having intense pain in her left breast of sudden onset. A few months ago she had similar pain in the right breast with redness, warmth, low grade fever, and redness. She was diagnosed with mastitis and had 2 courses of antibiotics and it resolved. She was not lactating at that time either. I did a thorough breast exam and found nothing unusual except intense pain about 3-4:00 radiating out to the midaxillary line with palpation and a wedge of contracted areola at 12-1:00 extending about an inch up into the breast but no nipple involvement. To me it appeared to be of nerve origin, not breast origin. She had a history of having chickenpox and I suspected Herpes Zoster (shingles) but had never heard of shingles without lesions. Sure enough, she got an appointment with her OB the next day and he confirmed shingles and gave her and antiviral prescription. An internet search describes this as Zoster sine herpete. I gave her some Hydrogel dressings and they relieved some of the exquisite sensitivity to touch by placing a barrier between her skin and clothes. Not sure how common it is to have shingles bilaterally at different times but something to consider with moms who have unusual breast pain. Linda Anderegg, RNC, IBCLC, RLC in Chicago *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html