I need a little wisdom from the collective Breastfeeding Brain...

28 yr. old primip with 5 week old son, born at 40 weeks gestation.
Breastfeeding very well until this week, when mom presented to her OB with
bilateral redness to bottom half of breasts (which had been evident to her X
2 wks.)  Complaints of occasional pain in these areas, off & on, no lumps
palpable to mom or physician.  He put her on Biaxin X 10 days.  Mom was not
convinced this is mastitis and had consulted several volunteer experts and
was told it was thrush.  Mom began use of mycostatin to nipple & areola with
no relief of symptoms.  Mom presented in my office yesterday afternoon.
Visual inspection of breasts shows very distinct line of redness
bilaterally--it actually is VERY symetrical, "cuts the breasts in half".  Mom
is very fair skinned, has some symptoms of Raynaud's at nipples but shows no
evidence of candidiasis at this time; baby also free from symptoms of thrush.
 Per mom, the symptoms of redness first appeared after she finished a dose of
Keflex for absessed C-Sect.

I am not convinced that this is mastitis (no fever, no achiness, no palpable
area of origin, bilateral and symetrical, etc.)  I'm wondering about the
possibility of a systemic infection connected with the absess (which is still
healing, and mom does hydrogen peroxide BID but no more packings).  In the
back of my mind is the info from Barbara Wilson-Clay on inflammatory breast
cancer, so I don't want this to go on much longer without a second medical
opinion for mom.  Anything we have missed???

Kathy Parkes, RN, IBCLC
The Lactation Connection (TLC), Inc.
www.tlc4moms.com

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