+++ This is part of an email I sent to Whitney a few weeks ago. +++
I hope you never get thrush.
The stinging, burning pain is practically unbearable. I want to chew through my chewbeads. I have the urge to “throw the baby across the room” while nursing that I had at the very beginning. I think “they” call it cat tongue or something but it feels like a rat is gnawing at my ta-tas. And not just during, but afterward, for three hours.
I hope I have thrush.
Because that’s what I’m treating by taking this pill (for 3 weeks before I get full relief) and painting my nips purple. Because if I don’t have thrush, then I don’t know what to do with myself in another 16 days when this still hurts so much.
I hate to end my illustrious and productive nursing career on a low note but I am not planning a victory baby to make up for it. If this is how it will go down — in flames, so to speak — then so be it!
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First, there was itching (annoying but bearable). Then came the bleeding; I noticed blood dripping from my baby’s mouth during already-painful nursing; he looked like a little vampire. When these symptoms evolved into intense hellfire pain deep in my milk ducts, my doctor suggested thrush as the culprit, even though my baby never presented with any symptoms. She said that thrush is quite challenging to diagnose but easy to treat with an anti-fungal pill (same as you’d get for any yeast infection). Though I wondered if my diet of sweets and treats might be to blame, she said I could take the pill along with my coffee and donuts. Gotta love western medicine.
Unfortunately, my doc also told me that the pill might take the full 21 days before I felt any improvement. So in addition to the medicine, I purchased some over-the-counter purple stuff to apply — umm, err, how to put this delicately? — topically. Yes, I painted it on my nipples.
There, I said it.
Using a Q-tip dipped in Gentian Violet antiseptic (to keep the liquid sterile), I swabbed myself once per day before nursing for four days. That stuff stains like crazy so be ready with the nursing pads. The purple stuff helped immediately, but only a little bit. I took four days off and did another four days on.
Because of the thrush, I cut my nursing down from five sessions to three right away. Because of dropping sessions, I also got plugged ducts. Twice.
Unfortunately, after six weeks of various forms of treatment, it still hurt. While the agony was reduced (see “burning hellfire” comments), the discomfort was sucky enough that I could no longer justify nursing a nearly one year old who barely cared one way or another. And so we stopped altogether, but I can’t help wonder if I need to cut back on the sweets anyway. [See also I give up, whining about weaning.]
Thrush is a hot mess. While I talked with real doctors, lactation consultants, friends, and “Dr. Google,” I can’t diagnose you over a website. What I learned online about symptoms and treatment, I learned from the kellymom guide to more than you ever wanted to know about thrush. If you’re suffering from it too — and I hope you’re not!! — check out these articles. And good luck to you!
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This post was sponsored by Q-tips as part of their tipster program. See their Facebook page for more quick tips and tricks. Unfortunately, the story is mine.
To any woman that has ever had thrush, my sympathies go out to you. I had it for two months straight using the lovely prescription my Dr. gave me (I might as well have rubbed my nipples with water for the all the good that did) Finally Kellymom.com and I came to an agreement, we went down the list of every single known thrush possibly cure until the horrors of thrush went away. I know have a box of “cures” labeled thrush tucked away just in case.
I describe ductal thrush like STABBING KNIVES OF FIRE. Sound about right?
I’ve had thrush. THREE TIMES. I know your pain.
The first time was the first week of nursing. So I couldn’t tell right away that it wasn’t standard issue “new to nursing this sucks”. I wanted to rip my “ta-ta”s off.
Then it recurred at around 3 months, after baby was treated with antibiotics. Baby and I were purple for about a week solid. We did EVERYTHING on every source I could find EVAR to treat it – eating TONS of yogurt, wash everything in HOT water with BLEACH and dry in dryer as hot as possible, sunning diapers/bras, vinegar/gentian violet/antifungal cream on the ta-tas and baby’s bath/butt (at different times of day), etc., etc., etc. It was so involved. I get exhausted just thinking about it.
Then it recurred again, about two weeks later. We had to do all of that stuff… AGAIN … but for all three people in the household – we realized my husband had it on his hands from spit up, so he was passing it around to both of us, then we were passing it back and forth. YOGURT FOR EVERYONE!
I’ve never had ductal thrush but I’ve had oral thrush.
It was like chewing glass for 3 weeks straight. Couldn’t eat, could barely drink. PAIN PAIN PAIN—would rather endure another 42-hour labor/delivery then get oral thrush again…sweet jesus.
Hugs
Thank you for this. While my BF’ing has concluded, I dealt with ongoing pain for … way too long. I’m quite certain it was never as bad as ‘real’ Thrush (thankfully), but no one could figure it out. These articles HELP. (PS: the one thing that my doc did suggest which has helped (and I still take) are over-the-counter Acidophilus and Probiotic Complex pills from Trader Joe’s. A preventative / proactive measure for breastfeeding women who have a propensity for all sorts of yeast infections often. Like me!)
I really appreciate these comments, ladies. This post was hard to write (not has hard as thrush!) because I like to keep things positive and never talk about BOOBS.
But if I can help anyone at all, even just with moral support, it will have been worth it.
Okay, you might not like talking about boobs, but from someone who had a hell of a time nursing because my boobs like to make plugged ducts for funsies, I feel your pain. I ended up having to stop nursing on one side not only because of pain, but because everything on that side freaked out and shut down from what might have been thrush, or might not have been…as they said thrush is hard to diagnose and they thought I had it but then they ended up deciding it was mastitis right behind my nipple (also hard to diagnose because I don’t get flu like symptoms) AND thrush AND blebs. Sooo, the burning hellfire could be from thrush and lots of other things, maybe that is why it didn’t go away in six weeks. Mine took about two months to disappear.
Heather – know that reading/hearing people talk about it is helpful. When I was suffering through it, it seemed like I was the only one who had heard of this complication of lactation. Even my doctor seemed surprised! One more internet hit about it makes all the difference to someone feeling horribly alone and in pain from thrush!
My daughter ended up with thrush (courtesy of my MIL’s fingers in her mouth), which naturally meant that I got it too. She (and I) struggled with it for a month straight. She even got a yeast infection in her diaper rash. The first set of prescriptions from the doctor didn’t work. At all. For either of us. She was too little to eat yogurt, and me eating it didn’t help her, so she kept re-infecting me.
Things I learned? Even if you get an anti-fungal pill, skip the gentian violet – get the nystatin from the doctors in addition to your pill. Not the liquidy drops, but the stuff that is much like vaseline. Use it on both of you immediately after every feeding, regardless of which of you is showing symptoms. And you might feel mean for doing it, but I found that using one of the finger tip baby toothbrushes to rub it into my little one’s mouth to apply it is what finally did the trick to help us both get rid of it.
Thanks @Tinabot for the new ideas.
I also appreciate hearing that I’m not the only one with “burning hellfire”
@Kezia, I’d love to hear all the remedies in your bag (or box) of tricks that you tried.
Some of you are amazing me at your tenacity.
@Nicole T, I’m impressed that you figured out that it was your husband passing it around. Mysterious little buggers, these yeasties!!
Wow. Reading these comments make me realize that the pain I currently feel while nursing is more just the fact that my newborn nurses constantly and is not thrush. Thanks!
My daughter who is almost 4 months now had horrible thrush for 3 1/2 months. We tried everything, nystatin, grapefruit seed oil, sterilizing everything and no cure. I had to stop breastfeeding and strictly pump due to the pain…then she went to daycare at 3 months and a week or so…the lady there was like whoa bad thrush!! ( she then had it on her butt too) she’s like oh just rub her mouth with a wet cloth after she eats. Miracles did happen and it was gone shortly after!!!
[...] Why was this so difficult? To add to the experience, we (both myself and the baby) developed a raging case of thrush. There were clogged milk ducts, which then led to me waking in the middle of the night with a fever [...]