Hi Jackie!!  Welcome aboard!  We haven't really "talked" since we were on the
Board together, so now we'll get to communicate periodically....  isn't this
fun?

I have a new client I saw yesterday - need some help.  Baby is 15 weeks old,
gorgeously healthy, gaining weight very well, exclusively breastfed.  Has a
slightly tight frenulum, but can put tongue over lower gum line and latch on
without difficulty, though is a noisy nurser.  Mom having no difficulty with
pain on left side, but latch on on right side is sending her through the
roof.  It started about 1 month ago after 3 months of pain free nursing.
 There is no evidence of a mastitis or plugged duct.  The sensation is sharp
shooting pain up one duct - she can virtually draw a line up the breast -
that lasts until the milk begins to flow.  No history or evidence of yeast.
 Small white spot in the center of the nipple, but it doesn't look like one
of those plugged milk pores.  Someone told her to prick it with a sterile
needle which she has done several times, but nothing significant has come out
and it hasn't helped.  Her midwife thought she had "yeast mastitis" so put
her on an antifungal ointment which helped for one day.  I cultured both mom
& baby and am incubating the sticks even as we speak, but I will be really
surprised if anything grows on them.  She has NO history of yeast, has been
on no antibiotics, and the only precipitating factor in this episode is one
or two days of full breasts when she didn't empty adequately when her father
was having surgery in Michigan and she and the baby went to be with him.  The
pain is slightly less in the morning, but by evening she is in tears.  Heat
aggravates the pain (she tried a hot moist compress just prior to feeding a
couple of times, and found it very painful).  It is a bit less painful if she
starts on the left side and then goes to the right.  Breasts & nipples are
basically unremarkable.  There are no palpable lumps, she has had one or two
episodes of mastitis with her other two children, no reddened areas....no
fever, no chills, etc.  Any suggestions?  My guess is an inflammation of the
duct (we are going to try ibuprophen for two days to see if that helps), or
nerve damage, but there hasn't been any thing that would lead me to believe
that the baby bit her or in any other way traumatized the area.  She says the
breast feels fine unless you poke at it, and then it feels sore to the touch
(I can imagine).  Told her I would run it by you all, and get back to her.
 Any words of wisdom?

Jan B.