Staph/bacterial infection mistaken for thrush? (X-posted from LWaB)

[luckiest]

(I'm a dummy and couldn't find the breastfeeding section when I originally posted this)

My thrush saga continues...

After months of home treatment, including 2 rounds of gentian violet and nystatin (for me and baby), I'm still having problems.  I finally called a midwife (the midwives who attended my birth are out of state) and over the phone she told me she doesn't think it's thrush and wants to see me.

In the meantime I've been trying to figure out what it could be, if not thrush.  It all started after a bleb/clogged duct, serving as the entry point for infection.  At first it looked like typical thrush - shiny, red, flaky, burning.  Now the shine and flakiness is gone, but my nipple (just one side) is still VERY red, moderately painful (though not burning, necessarily, just painful).  No cracks, just redness and if you look closely it's like there are a bunch of broken capillaries under the skin.  

My guess is that I had both thrush and some kind of bacterial infection, possibly staph, and I've gotten rid of the thrush with my home treatment but not the bacteria.  

Has anyone else had a bacterial infection in their nipples?  How did you treat it?  This has been going on for so long that it's really starting to affect my mental state.  I'm incredibly discouraged and have panicky moments where I think it's just never going to go away. 

[xanthin1]

Did you every figure out what it was?

[evmadi]

I had an infection like this in both breasts. It was very hard to get rid of. I took antibiotics for months. It started with mastitis that didn't fully clear up. I thought it was thrush then I assumed latch problems, I was wrong. I also had some breast tenderness but only when they were examined.