OK, I will try not to make this too long:) I am 29yrs old. I am currently breastfeeding. Back in July I went to the dr with thrush on my nipples. My dd and I were treated (she has never had a relapse) and my itching went away but within a week I developed horrible breast pain. Shooting/stabbing pains that went up my shoulder and around my back and it was absolutley EXCRUCIATING when dd would latch on. My pain was easily a 10! My dr assumed that the thrush had gone into my milk ducts so he put me on 2 weeks of diflucan. The pain got better for a few days but then came back. It's not nearly as bad as it was but it's still there. I read a lot of stuff online about women who have battled this horrible ductal thrush that has lasted months on end. My dr said I have to watch what I read on the internet:) that thrush isn't that bad and that 2 weeks of diflucan should have easily killed it all. He won't give me more diflucan, wants me to get an ultrasound of my breast(this has all been only one breast) which is scheduled in a few weeks. In the mean time he did blood work and my said rate is 75, I guess "normal" is in the 0-20 range. I am just curious if anyone knows if thrush can cause my said rate to go up. Or if you have heard of thrush that won't go away. My dr has mentioned inflammatory breast cancer, which I have looked up and yes I have a few of the symptoms but not all.. and not the major ones. I am just looking for answers. Any advice or opinions would be appreciated.
Thanks

Did he give drops for the baby as well? My son and I passed it back and forth when I was nursing. The first doc said he'd get the meds from my milk when that didn't work we went to a civilian and he said that the baby needed his own drops and it cleared up when we each took our own

Since your SED rate is high, I have to believe that what you have is called mastitis. Mastitis is an inflammation of the mammary glands and can be quite painful.

Since you are nursing, I would tend to lead more toward the mastitis than the breast cancer. (I have had both BTW).

Are they painful continuely or mostly during a feeding? Any areas of redness or hardness... or is it mostly just the shooting pains? Sometimes thrush can be very stubborn and you certainly need to treat you and baby at the same time, even if only one is showing any possible symptoms or it can just go back and forth.

Certainly there is some type of inflammation going on, but determining from what will take a bit of checking. Thrush would be easy enough to determine so you should definitely be checked again to see if you can rule that out. Mastitis may require you to be on antibotics, so that should be looked at as a possibility as well. Obviously you will want all possibilities checked and systematically ruled out to determine the cause and then what treatment would be appropriate.

Regardless of any possible cause, you want to keep the milk moving to avoid further discomfort. If possible, have baby nurse first on the sore breast. A gentle massage around the breast prior, and once in awhile during a feed, can be helpful. If a particular area is more tender than the rest... apply a warm washcloth to the area with gentle downward compressions prior to a feed.

An increased SED rate means that there is inflammation somewhere in the body. Unfortunately it does not tell us where. However, this can be caused by clogged milk ducts and/or mastitis, rarely will thrush present with an increased SED rate.

You should present these possibilities to your doctor.