Hi, I just wanted to send a followup to my post on the mom (who is my
daughter!!) with the problematic deep breast pain. Her baby is 5 1/2
weeks old.  My poor daughter's odyssey with breastfeeding this time
around has been nothing but completely miserable to deal with, and has
taught me some valuable lessons.

Quick summary of past events: bilateral nipple pain beginning within
one week postpartum turned out to be Raynauds and was treated with
nifidipene (10mg tid) for about 10 days. She had to go off the meds
early due to persistent headaches. The pain immediately subsided, and
she has about 80% relief with this, 4 weeks later. Bilateral and very
deep breast pain began at about 2 weeks postpartum. I was unsure what
this was - muscle strain, candida (which I quickly ruled out after my
post to LACTNET), or mastitis. My daughter remained afebrile the
entire time, with no other signs of illness. Finally, about 4 days
ago, the pain began to become even more intense on one side, and I
made her call her OB at 10pm at night. Antibiotics were RXed and she
has been taking Keflex for 3 days (allergic to penicillin). Pain
relief occurred in 24 hours after 4 absolutely MISERABLE weeks of
pain!!

But the problems are not over yet - within 24 hours of taking the
antibiotics, her breasts became incredibly inflamed underneath, on
both sides. Now it is primarily on just one side today. Itchy, burning
sensation - I am assuming yeast. I have never seen yeast present this
way, I have always seen it on the nipples/areola. I can't believe how
fast it occurred after taking the antibiotics.  I bought her some OTC
monistat cream and told her to rub it on 3x per day. She probably
needs APNO cream. I suggested she ask her OB to RX this today at her 6
week visit.

And now she has diahrreah from the antibiotics, and this grandma will
be rushing over probiotics as soon as possible. AND...the baby is so
colicky. I will be going over to help her get some sleep today. The
situation has been a bit of a mess all the way around.

Lesson learned - deep breast pain in the absence of other symptoms
must be evaluated for mastitis at all times!! I wish I had acted on my
gut instinct a bit sooner on that one. Thank goodness I did not have
her get lymphatic massage. Who knows what that would have done to the
infected breasts.

I want to extend my deepest gratitude to those of you who sent me
posts on and off line. I hope she can get through this and continue to
breastfeed. Her spirits are down.

Brenda Phipps, BS, IBCLC

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