> Now 3 weeks later, tear is almost completely healed, is not painful, all
> surface pain is gone. However, deep sharp stabbing breast pain remains. Does
> not occur every day, but seems to be getting more painful. Occurs about 2
> hours post feed, usually in the late evening.

Dear Gail,

Perhaps a little off track hoever I have just read a paper entitled Applied
Kinesiology for Treatment of Women with Mastalgia. The Breast. 2001.
10:p15-19. Apart from their treatment success for this problem (although a
few methodology problems) I was surprised at  how prevalent the problem of
unexplained mastalgia was, even in non breastfeeding women. So much so that
that they have a dedicated Mastalgia Clinic at the hospital where the
research was conducted (Guys, London). The average age of the sample was
37rys (range 17-64) and pain included cyclical and non cyclical pain. Just
goes to show how much there is out there that we don¹t have explanations or
solutions for.

One suggestion I have however is referred pain due to back strain (?perhaps
associated with one sided feeding). If she has also tender costochondral
joints perhaps also consider an inflammatory response and treat with NSAIDS
(or even something unusual such as fibromyalgia if she has many tender
points - I have seen one women with this who complained also of shooting
pains in the breast)

Regards
Cathy Fetherston CM MSc IBCLC
Western Australia

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