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Hi, I am treating a penicillin-resistant staph infection (I have a chronic history of staph with breastfeeding my tongue-tied children). Child's tongue-tie was revised last week at almost six weeks old. Started Bactrim for suspected staph and within six hours noted significant reduction in nipple pain but after 2nd dose on day 1, I had an allergic reaction so the doctor switched meds to Clindamycin. Fearing a yeast infection, I started taking raw probiotics 3x a day and giving baby 6 drops daily. By day 3, pain was slowly increasing until I could only nurse/pump for short periods of time (eventually going back to pumping exclusively). Day 4, the pain was constant again and knowing that the Clindamycin was probably working, I suspected thrush. Sure enough, baby's tongue was covered in white. Baby and I were immediately put on a course of Fluconazole and w/in 24 hours I had tremendous relief in pain. It is day 5, I can nurse *almost* pain-free (first time ever after 3 kids and 2+ years of nursing!) and I've been boiling or bleaching everything and washing all the clothes on the "sanitize" cycles of our washer and dryer. I have also been using APNO since baby's birth (to avoid staph and thrush--fail!) but two weeks ago switched to Mupirocin per a doctor's suggestion that APNO can cause nipple irritation (not realizing I actually had staph). I've now switched back to the APNO.
My questions are:
1. Everything I've read online says thrush is extremely hard to treat and I need to keep treating for 2-3 weeks, but my prescription is only for 3 days and baby's for 9 days...? How do we continue to treat it?
2. How long do I need to continue boiling everything?
3. If the baby's tongue is no longer white, is that a sign that the yeast is gone? Or conversely, how do I know when the thrush is gone?
4. I have over 60 ounces of milk frozen during this period thus far. I know that freezing doesn't kill yeast but I've read that there isn't a lot of evidence suggesting that using the frozen milk can cause another outbreak. If I mark the milk and use it at a much later date, or if I dilute it with other milk to reduce the amount of yeast--is it safe to use?
5. I have to have my gallbladder out next week (because I'm not in enough pain with mastitis and thrush!). The surgery was already delayed for the staph infection...do you suggest I delay for the thrush? If so, how do I know the thrush has been resolved enough to have the surgery?
Thank you in advance.
My questions are:
1. Everything I've read online says thrush is extremely hard to treat and I need to keep treating for 2-3 weeks, but my prescription is only for 3 days and baby's for 9 days...? How do we continue to treat it?
2. How long do I need to continue boiling everything?
3. If the baby's tongue is no longer white, is that a sign that the yeast is gone? Or conversely, how do I know when the thrush is gone?
4. I have over 60 ounces of milk frozen during this period thus far. I know that freezing doesn't kill yeast but I've read that there isn't a lot of evidence suggesting that using the frozen milk can cause another outbreak. If I mark the milk and use it at a much later date, or if I dilute it with other milk to reduce the amount of yeast--is it safe to use?
5. I have to have my gallbladder out next week (because I'm not in enough pain with mastitis and thrush!). The surgery was already delayed for the staph infection...do you suggest I delay for the thrush? If so, how do I know the thrush has been resolved enough to have the surgery?
Thank you in advance.