Maybe it's not mastitis?

Thanks, Kicks! Midwife thinks it's infection based on the state of my nipple (raw, cracked). We'll know more in 3 days after results from the milk culture come in. I'll update this thread at that time...

Thanks for that link, Bon! I have done most/all of the plugged duct remedies - continuing to nurse, massage, warm compresses, ice packs, cabbage leaves, ibuprofin. They seemed to help somewhat with the engorgement and soreness, but I'm left with the redness.

Today I was noticing that I have a number of broken capillaries on my breast - quite possibly from how I hold it with one hand while breastfeeding. Those same areas are also redder than elsewhere on the breast. I also have thin and fair skin and when my plastic surgeon was discussing reconstruction of my right breast 4 years ago (I had DCIS, not sure why my signature with dx isn't showing up here), he noted that even my DD-cup natural breasts were not well supported by my skin - so my reconstructed breast is a B/C cup. Given that my lactating breast is an L/M cup now, I wonder if all the redness and irritation is from my skin being traumatized?

I have a Tuesday morning appointment with a breast specialist. Hoping to get to the bottom of this quickly

Thanks for the note, bride.

I saw the breast surgeon this morning. She thinks it is residual mastitis; she did US a lymph node in my armpit that felt enlarged and said it looked like a normal node fighting an ongoing infection. She's going to put me on a different antibiotic and see me again in 10 days. I pointed out that the milk culture last week did not show infection, and she said that that didn't mean much, as mastitis infections don't show up in milk (though an abscess infection would).

She also said that based on the many broken capillaries, the large/heavy size of my breast, and the thinness of my skin, that the redness and visible skin pores could be a result of the stretching/stress that my breast skin is under right now. That seems quite possible to me, particularly since I have to hold/pinch/massage my breast a lot to help my LO nurse and/or to drain the breast. That's a lot of trauma for my poor boob!

For now I think I am satisfied and hope that the new antibiotic helps. There is a small part of me that wonders if I should have insisted on a biopsy today, but since she said that if there's no improvement in 10 days we would talk about a skin biopsy, I feel good that she isn't ignoring the possibility of IBC, just following protocol to rule out other causes.

My biopsy results finally came in today....negative! No cancer whatsoever; instead, a finding of dermatitis. I will still have a mammo, but signs are pointing to this being a dermatology issue of some kind so I will follow up with a skin doc.