Hi Barbara

I would begin to question the diagnosis of mastitis.

In my area over the last couple of years there have been several cases of 
erysipelas of the breast, which at first gets diagnosed as mastitis, but 
doesn't involve the deeper mammary structures to any degree, just the skin. 
I'm not taking anything away from this condition - the women get very sick 
and it has proven to be very difficult to treat.
The area is usually very large, as you have described, has an 'orange peel' 
type of pitting to the skin, and it is bright red!!
One woman was in hospital on IV antibiotics for days and just recovering 
from it on one breast when it started on the other - while she was still on 
the IV antibiotics.

Here's a link to some information about erysipelas: 
http://www.emedicine.com/derm/topic129.htm - this article mentions the 
possibility of recurrence; one mother had it with her first baby, then it 
reoccurred in exactly the same spot with her next baby. An infectious 
diseases specialist could be a very handy addition to your team if this is 
what your client has.

There will be a presentation of these case studies at the ABA International 
Conference in Hobart in September.

Denise

***************************************
Denise Fisher
Health e-Learning
http://www.health-e-learning.com
[log in to unmask]

**************************************** 

             ***********************************************

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