Tell me about your boobs :)

[SoonToBe]

As you know, I've had a tough time with recurrent mastitis.  The last bout was on the right boob even though the other times it was the left.  This hurt the most and my boob was flaming red, hot, swollen, and huge.  It hurt a lot.  I went to the doc and found out the infection was systemic and my white blood cell count was high.  I had IV antibiotics and oral antibiotics for 10 days (which ends tomorrow).  I felt better immediately.  The  doc told me I needed to see a breast specialist to rule out inflammatory breast cancer.  Scared the crap out of me.  From what I've read, it's not that since I did present with an infection (with fever) that responded to antibiotics.  Cancer doesn't respond to antibiotics. 

So I feel better now than I have in wks, but was wondering what normal boobs feel like a month or so after nursing. 

My boobs still seem ever so slightly pink, but it's hard to tell.  I have some pain upon latch, but it goes away.  My boobs often feel achy.  Is that normal?  They feel heavy and sometimes itchy, but not like an actual itchy spot.  My areola on the left breast sometimes only half contracts if that makes sense.

I'm seeing a specialist tomorrow just in case.  It's nothing, right?

[Beckily]

I have pain sometimes, and others have mentioned it. I don't get the itchy these days, but I did when I was pregnant! SO ANNOYING!

Good luck :)

[cat13]

Glad to hear you are feeling better and hopefully going to the specialist can put your mind at ease that it's not anything serious! 
 

Originally Posted by SoonToBe 

My boobs still seem ever so slightly pink, but it's hard to tell.  I have some pain upon latch, but it goes away.  My boobs often feel achy.  Is that normal?  They feel heavy and sometimes itchy, but not like an actual itchy spot.  My areola on the left breast sometimes only half contracts if that makes sense.

So much of this is true for me too. My nipples are very pink, but all the other thrush signs that me & DS had have gone away, so I don't know if that's just the color of my nips now, or if I still have thrush.  I always feel discomfort upon latching, sometimes pain, sometimes lots of pain, and sometimes it only last for a minute or maybe the whole feeding. And I have the achy feeling too.  I'm halfway through my abx for an infection right now, so I'm hoping that I'll feel better when they are done.. And my LC says that DS's latch looks great, so I don't know what we can do anymore. 

I'm pretty much losing all hope that I'll ever be pain-free again. ugh!
 

[SoonToBe]

I feel much better than I did, but I don't think the infection is totally gone.  I still have some pinkness and I'm achy all over, but no fever or anything.  Yesterday was my last day of antibiotics so I'm hoping it doesn't come back.  I saw the breast specialist.  She did an ultrasound and saw no abscesses or anything (which I wasn't worried about).  She did see some skin thickening which can be a sign of something serious, but she didn't think it was.  She wants me to come back in 2 wks to see if it's gone.  If it's not, she wants to do a biopsy.  :(  She did say that she doesn't think it's anything serious, but it can be hard to tell with nursing mothers.  I really hope it's nothing.  Logically it seems like nothing, but I don't know why the pinkness isn't gone after this long.  She wants to see if the pinkness is better in 2 wks too.  She said it could just be leftover inflammation.  Ugh.  I just want to not be thinking about my boobs anymore. :)

[lisastrickland]

Antibiotics can up your chance for thrush... if your nips are red/itchy with deep brest pain, it could be thrush. we are battling it now... i tried all the natural remedys (GSE, genatin violet, etc..) and we still have it and baby girl has a diaper rash from it too... so we are seeing the pedi today for it.

I hope you feel better soon. 6 weeks was the turning point for me with my second son and i heard many say ot gets better after 6 weeks, so hopefully soon!!

[LadyJennifer]

When I had ductal thrush with my first dd, I had an achy pain in my boobs, especially after nursing. When it was really bad it was an itchy shooting pain. My nipples didn't look terribly thrushy, but latch was excruciating. When I had thrush with my ds it was just on the nipples and they cracked, bled, etc.
Hoping it gets better for you! I had mastitis and thrush multiple times with my first two. It's no fun!

[elove]

soo, i have more questions than answers... but hopefully this will help demystify some issues for all trying to figure out thrush;

- those of you that went through thrush and had no visible symptoms, would you describe the "shooting pain"?? I get what feels like a nerve firing every now and then - is that it?

- I have cracks on my nips..yes we sometimes get a little lazy w latch (a big no no, i know)..she curls in her upper lip. I have been working on it during the day time but night time when she is not fully awake I cannot do much

- she is still working on her intestinal movements intensely. She will pass gas with ease at times, so it is not all bad but there are periods of times when she is just upset working on it and cries. 

- she has a very little rash that is between her little bum cheeks...it was worse and the Ped said it was yeast (did not say thrush but something like cottage cheese??) and it has greatly subsided into all but two spots...she had us use nysatin, desitin (which we did couple of days and stopped as soon as it cleared) and cornstarch (used twice and stopped)

I started vinegar rinse today preemptively and will start taking achidophilus and grape seed extract tablets. Any advice?