thrush, difficulty getting treatment, need to vent!

[willowstar]

Hello

I posted on here a couple of days ago that I was having pain when feeding, not sure why but thought due to teeth coming in...anyway ended up with cracked bleeding nipple and lots of pain with feeding and now between feeding pain deep down in my breast.

so, I spoke to NCT counsillor and a lactation consultant (who is a friend) who suggested thrush. I looked it up and I have the symptoms and my daughter has some symptoms too.

So, I phoned GP this morning to get appointment and was told that he had been a gp for 30 years and had never heard of thrush in the breast and that it sounded like an infection. I then went to see the gp, was examinined thoroughly and was told that even though I wasn't displaying any of the symptoms of mastitis it probably was an infection...and prescribed antibiotics.

I had gone armed with the breastfeeding network leaflet on thrush and the info from NHS Scotland.

So, I said i was reluctant to take antibiotics as I felt so well and wasn't displaying any signs of infection and if it is a fungal infection then antibiotics would only make it worse.

he finally prescribed anti fungal gel for me and my baby after a fair bit of negotiation. told me to go back in 10 days if I wasn't better.

after which I went to boots and bought fluconazole and just took it. it costs a fortune and the guidelines are that i have to take it for 10 days.

I am so so sick of arrogant dr's who don't trust patients and who think that they know it all. I am a health care professional, I have a PhD and have worked int eh NHS most of my working life...I just find it so hugely frustrating.

anyway...does anyone know how best to clean my daughters toys so that we can minimise the risk of reinfection??? How best to kill of the fungal spores???

hello

ladies, interesting reading, seems so many of us get this so why the f*ck I should be patronised and told that in his 30 years as a GP he had never come across this I have no idea.

I have been treating myself since Tuesday with 150mg fluconazole daily (with 300mg on Tuesday, as per the leaflet). I am feeling a lot less pain in my nipples, the crack seems to have completely healed but the surface thrush is still there...my whole body is a bit of a wreck though, my scalp has gone scaly and dandruffy and I have a horrible tongue :-(

Not to worry though, I hope I caught it in time and it will clear. We are washing our bedding and nightclothes daily and all of her toys.

We are buying the tablets from Tesco for £4.95 each. God knows what they think of OH though, yesterday he went in and said he wanted three...they asked who they were for and he said him and his wife and someone else...but didn't say who! No doubt their minds went into overdrive :-) So sad we have to go through this just to get the medicines I need though.

Needless to say I am changing GP this week coming up and I am going to write to the practice manager about the paternalistic patronising attitude. It won't help but might make me feel better! I think I might couch it very sweetly though and include some leaflets for all the doctors in the practice.

Dita...I hope you get you and your little one sorted, sorry you and your DH has a fight about it...can't be helping with the stress. Good luck with the next dr you see.

PMSL at the 'me, my wife and... someone else'

Definately complain.

Flip gosh, let me think...
garlic tablets

cut out all sugar/yeast (so no fruit or
white bread/pasta/rice either)

grapefruitseed extract on nipples

acidophillus capsules for me and opened them up and rubbed the powder on DS's mouth a couple of times

ate gallons of narural live yoghurt

silver nipple shields to heal the crack

fluconazole as per BfN leaflet (three courses)

Daktarin cream for nipples, nystatin oral suspension for DS then Daktarin gel for DS

washed stuff on hot washes
Eventually I went on holiday abroad, started using non gel breastpads, kept to the no sugar thing and swam in the sea everyday. That's when it finally lifted.

btw I just got all this gear off the internet, and the doses etc, not really very sensible, one should really go to a properly qualified herbalist etc etc.

MrsMotMot crikey, you did loads! Well done for shifting it!

I'm taking pau d'arco (because of the advice on this site) as a preventative, as my DS still had traces in his mouth and so we had another round of daktarin for each of us.

I'm also eating a daily yogurt and drinking an actimel but may get a probiotic capsule (in for a penny and all that!). I've cut back on sugar, but I doubt I could cut it out completely!

Just out of curiousity, did you use the silver cups while using the daktarin? I had been using them but stopped once I started the daktarin. I've started using them again in the last couple of days as I'm just desperate for my last crack to heal (I had been using jelonet and lansinoh). They seem to be helping (I say in desperation ). Although the pain of the cracked nipple is but a fraction of the pain of thrush...

Willow definitely complain. It's so shoddy. My DH also bought all my flucozanole, although I wish he'd thought of the "And someone else" to get 3 doses at once! I'm glad ot hear pain is reducing and cracks healing

cut out refined sugar, yeast (incl bread), mushrooms
And get acidophilis at the health shop (good bacteria stuff)

These should help zap it along with the fluconazol, creams for you and baba, and boil washing eth

I've hadf thrush for 8 wks now - grrrrr
to the gps!!!

oh yes forgot about mushrooms. I decided that dampness was my enemy so ditched the lansinoh. I would rub in the daktarin cream (not the oral gel, that is poorly absorbed by skin) til it was all absorbed, then used the silverettes. I emptied them regularly too of milk as the sweet milk just equalled more thrush for me.

How are things willowstar?

What are silverettes?

My friend went to the Senior Partner in our GP surgery and he actually said to her "there is one any easy way to sort this out you know, and that's to stop breastfeeding" !!!!!!!

Silverettes, they won't solve the problem of sore nipples caused by poor positioning/attachment, that can only happen through better positioning/attachment. But in my case they allowed a crack to heal when it wouldn't due to the presence of thrush. And when I bought them they were on sale for half price, although I was so desperate I probably would have paid full!

at that GP... sigh

Just wanted to report back on our visit to the GP today.

My recurrent thrush seems to have been knocked on the head by my French pessary back in March, though I get occasional ominous pains in my breasts and the odd bit of fanjo itchiness. I was still treating DD nightly with Daktacort, and have been for months, but it flares up again as soon as I stop. It has been bad the last couple of days, with the poor little mite furiously scratching away last night so took her to see the GP this morning.

I got in and said that DD was suffering thrush and that I was concerned that we were just passing it backwards and forwards, to which he replied disparagingly that that didn't seem very likely. I then pointed out that I was still breastfeeding! He asked whether she had it in her mouth and I said that I hadn't seen any signs but that I had read that you could have it without symptoms. He said that that didn't really happen She clamped her mouth shut so he couldn't get a look, but he did prescribe us drops and a different sort of cream for DD.

I am thinking of taking a single dose of fluconazole, just to flush it out as it were, but wondering if that's stupid if I'm not really suffering at the moment Will I do myself damage or is it sensible to treat both of us at once regardless of severity of symptoms?