Hello Everyone

Fascinating client today and I'm sharing this with her permission.  She is
from Tonga and we worked through it with a translator.

Her left breast is full of scars, and she is complaining of a painful lump
that comes and goes in the inframammary fold.  It wasn't there today, and
there was no outward sign of a plugged duct or mastitis.

She had a breast abscess with her first baby when he was 4 months old.  Not
treated surgically, but with local herbs and ointments, until it ruptured
on its own (can you imagine).

When the baby was a year old, she had another, and later on a third
abscess, all treated the same way.

Later babies refused that breast from the start. I observed number 6
feeding (7 month old, doing fine), and he latched on happily, but came off
within seconds.  I thought he might be impatient with lack of milk or a
slow flow, but the mother expressed milk easily.  She says that it's the
taste of this breast's milk that they don't like.

She experiences pain going around from the breast towards the back, also
into her shoulder, and pins and needles up as far as her scalp.  She also
says that when she swallows food, she experiences painful sensations going
towards that breast.  She can't recall any trauma to her back, spine or
breast that would explain any of this.

So my question is - does this sound like a subclinical infection of
Staph/Strep remaining from the years-ago mistreatment?  Or something new
brewing?   Can it also be that the inflammation/infection has irritated the
intercostal nerves in that area?

She lost immediate family members to breast cancer, so is deeply concerned
about that too.

I've asked her to see her doctor for culturing the milk, for a referral for
a mammogram/ultrasound and also to query the neuralgia, but would
appreciate other thoughts.  I looked through the archives as I was sure
there was something about breast refusal indicating breast cancer, but
didn't find it.

Thank you
Jacquie Nutt IBCLC

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