Hello everyone,
This is my first time posting on this forum but I have "read" through this forum many times to find answers for many BF problems. I am posting today because I have had an issue going on from a long time and I feel like the docs and LC have not been able to understand. It's a long story so here I go:
About 5 months ago when my DD was born and I started nursing her, I had flat nipples. I was having a hard time getting her to open her mouth wide open to get a hold of my nipple. I took the help of nipple shield to kind of draw out the nipple and then remove the shield to latch her on directly. This was in the hospital. When I went home, I started using the shield again for my right breast since the nipple was very flat and my breasts were huge. I went through a phase of extremely sore nipples which hurt so much that I would dread every nursing session. I finally figured out that her mouth was still not opening up wide enough so worked on the latch more and things got better. In the meantime, I got a cracked right nipple.
When DD was three weeks old, one fine day I woke up in the morning to feed her and as I was moving over in my bed I put all the weigh on my right arm to position myself better. I suddenly felt that something shifted/pulled in the armpit area. It hurt so bad that I almost screamed. I started nursing DD and within an hour I started getting severe chills and then later a high fever. I called the doctor and the doctor who was on call prescribed antibiotics over the phone for 7 days and she said it was mastitis. Later I noticed red streaks coming from armpit towards the breast and also red streaks on the inside area of upper part of my arm. I took the antibiotics for 7 days. Things were better but I was still hurting in the same area (no lumps, no blocked ducts though). 8th day I was okay and on the 9th day it came back again...chills, high fever, etc. Again I was prescribed antibiotics but this time for 14 days.
4 weeks later, I slept on my right breast the whole night and woke up with an inflamed breast, then chills, and then fever. Again 10 days of antibiotics.
After this I continued to have dull pain/soreness in the same area (pain radiating from armpit towards the breast). It would come and go. I used to feel everytime I picked my older daughter or did anything where I use my right arm more, the pain in the area would start. Another 4 weeks later, mastitis came again. I went to the doc, she prescribed antibiotics, probiotics and nystatin for the nipple (so that I don't get yeast infection from the antibiotics). I also got an ultrasound done and they saw no cyst, no abscess but lots of inflammation.
Infection went, the breast inflammation also went away but pain in that same area got worse. Everytime my breast would become slightly full, it would hurt in that area. Now I am in the process of weaning off my DD. The pain is still there. I talked to an LC, she said to take ibprophen and do cold compresses. The cold compresses made it feel even more restrictive. I feel the tissues/muscles in that area (from armpit towards the breast) are still sore. I took 400 mg of advil 3 times for 7 days. It felt temporarily slightly better.
I also got an mri of the pectoral muscle thinking maybe I pulled a muscle (that is how it felt when I got mastitis the first time). The MRI said, it was all good in the pec muscle but they saw a very prominent breast parenchymal pattern (don't know what that means).
Now I have an appointment with a beast specialist in about 2 weeks. I still don't get what is causing this pain. The crack on my right nipple is also STILL there (no pain though)...it has only slightly healed. I am using nystatin on it and pumping only once a day. It is pink in color compared to the other nipple. Could it be thrush that is causing this pain or the inside of that part of the breast is still inflamed? I have read about thrush and thank God I don't feel itching, burning. The only reason I think it could be yeast infection is because 1)I took so many antibiotics 2)the nipple still hasn't healed 3)nipple is pink (no pain though) 4) pain is not like shooting/stabbing pain but more like radiating from armpit towards the breast. Could it be a mild case of yeast infection?Anybody has had anything similar?
Any helpful responses would be highly appreciated.