Please can we talk about my tits?

[peaceloveandtwirlywoos]

A few months ago (May time) I noticed a red, hot patch on one of my breasts. No discharge, pain or lumps. I stopped breastfeeding in January 2016, had mastitis when first began feeding but at the end we stopped so gradually that I just stopped producing with no engorgement. Dutifully went to the doctor who prescribed ABs, which I took. When I finished them, the redness was still there, and I developed a fever which lasted almost a week and made me feel terrible. Still no lumps or pain. I began a second course of ABs during the fever, which they sorted out, but still red, and now my breast was swollen and the breast tissue was painful and tender to touch. It would ache randomly. I went back to the doctor who referred me for an ultrasound within two weeks. I attended and thankfully nothing sinister was found, and the doctor there suggested it was simply something in the skin as the US had shown nothing inside.
Now the redness is still there, both my breasts are now swollen, the first still aches, and now I have severe burning pain in the nipple of the other breast.
I've had two normal 28 day cycles since this all began, but have wondered if I could be pregnant. I'm due in a few days so have been testing for about a week now with negative results. The only time I remember having sore, swollen breasts was when I was first pregnant, but it doesn't seem that's the case now.
I really want them to stop hurting as this new nipple pain is excruciating, but what else can the doctor do for me, when I've been to the breast screening clinic and they've found nothing wrong?
I'm going to try to buy a new bra tomorrow to see if that improves things, but I have the same pain in soft or structured bras (not wearing underwired at the moment as all my bras are still maternity/nursing ones ), and when braless.
Any suggestions?!

Bumping because I'm in agony

Could be be a sign of thrush? The ABs could be 'feeding' it, if it is? Sorry if it isn't it, I just know that I was treated for thrush once when I had painful boobs in the early days of breastfeeding.

Hope you find some answers (and relief!) soon

I wondered that. I never had it when I was breastfeeding, so not sure what to look out for. There's also nothing out of the ordinary on the sore nipple, only the swelling on both breasts, and the redness on the other. Weird and annoying. Thank you for responding.

Is the skin dimply at all or look different?

Go see the GP, any changes to your breasts are important to get checked out, could be nothing, could be something

No absolutely no changes to the appearance or feel, except for the red bit on the first breast. Second breast (with the nipple pain) is totally the same, except for the swelling.
I feel ridiculous going to the GP when the specialist breast clinic have given me a clean bill of health.
If I'm definitely not pregnant when period is due on Wednesday then I will definitely go back. Just rather hoped someone would say, oh yes, I had that. Take this and it'll go away

You need to go back. It could be nothing, but inflammatory breast disease is really hard to spot in the early stages and often gets treated for infection and thrush, etc.

You've accepted treatment. You've had the treatment. It hasn't treated it. Go back.

Christ I've just googled inflammatory breast disease and only inflammatory breast cancer came up. Is it the same thing?

Well, yes, inflammatory breast disease is a form of cancer. It's rare, accounting for only 1-4% of all breast cancers, so don't think that every third person going to breast clinic has IBD(IBC), but you are describing symptoms that are associated with it:

Swollen
Red
Firm or hard
Hot to the touch
The breast can also be painful in inflammatory breast cancer, but this is not always the case.

Other possible symptoms include

Ridges or thickening of the skin of the breast
Pitted skin, like orange peel
A lump in the breast
A discharge from the nipple
An inverted nipple – the nipple is pulled into the breast

Read more at www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/type/breast-cancer/about/types/inflammatory-breast-cancer#1UCoS6R0qmi18FbQ.99

So you've followed a course where you've been diagnosed with, and treated for, mastitis, but your problem hasn't gone away. Which is also common with this.

So all in all, while your risk of a breast cancer diagnosis each year currently stands at 0.164% (164 per 100,000 women), your risk of having Inflammatory Breast Cancer stands at 0.00164%-0.00656% (between 1.64 and 6.56 per 100,000 women). So really, really very tiny odds.

But you shouldn't have red, hot, painful breasts. So whether it is an infection, cancer, thrush or some other fungal infestation, you need to go back to the doctor and ask them to sort it out.

Thank you. That's frightened me into going back ASAP! My nipple isn't inverted, but it sure feels like someone is pulling it inwards with a pair of pliers. Ouch.