Nipple Pain (Read 1297 times)

I'm not nearly as worried right now as I was a few hours ago, but if anybody can think of any reason for this I'm interested in hearing it. I donated blood yesterday, felt fine during/after and since. I doubt that it has anything to do with this problem, but it is something I don't normally do so just throwing it out there in case somebody can think of a way that it is related. I haven't done any strenuous lifting since, so I don't think that I've torn a muscle or anything. On my run this evening, my right nipple started to ache. Since I didn't manage to clear the stream when I jumped it and managed to soak my entire front (well, mostly just my feet and the area between my stomach and face) when I landed in the water, I assumed I was getting a little nipple chafage and removed my shirt. Didn't really bother me too much until I put my shirt back on to drive home. (It started about 10-20 minutes after getting wet.) In the shower afterwards, I examined the nipple and saw no signs of chafage. I also determined that it wasn't the point of the nipple that hurt, it was the outside edge of the aereola, and it felt hard to the touch underneath. An hour or so after that, my wife got home, and I could feel a lump under there. I had only pressed on it in the shower, so no idea if the lump was there the whole time or whether it appeared in the hour between shower and my wife coming home. Either way, it is mildly painful to the touch. It's now a few hours later, and the nipple is very obviously swollen. If you don't know where to look, you can't even tell there's a point to the nipple anymore, since there's a big bump on the outside edge. Since it is swelling so fast I'm not too worried. I assume that I must have been bit or stung while running. My family has a pretty serious cancer history (my grandfather died when he was younger than I am now, for example) but most of the cancer in my family manifests behind us. The hard part/lump was mildly frightening, but the swelling points more towards an external source. As far as I know, I don't have any allergies to bees and such. I've never needed to use an epi pen or anything like that, and I have to think that if I'd been stung and was allergic that I'd be having more pain that I do have now given how close to my heart it is. However, I don't see any visible punctures or bite marks. So - what do you think? If it is still swollen and painful in the morning then I'll be heading to the doctor, but while it is swelling fast on a "0 to cancer" scale it is not swelling very fast on a "0 to allergic-oh-shit" scale.

Bug bite Mastitis (infection) Breast cancer Sorry...go get it checked out.

Now you know had a woman posted this you guys would be SCREAMING for pics.... so c'mon Blaine..cough it up

Heh... good point. Blaine, hope everything is okay.

Saw a nurse practitioner, who thought it was probably just an infection so she put me on antibiotics for the next few days and drew on my chest with a marker so we can see if it gets better. There's one red streak coming out of the nipple, but isn't too bad. The pain is a lot less than it was this morning so I think it might have been receding on its own (hopefully.) Still a hard lump, though.

Hopefully the antibiotics take care of it. What are you doing in the mean time to be able to run without the shirt rubbing on it?

I think it started going down before I even saw the doctor; right now, just about all of the swelling and redness is gone but there is still a definite hard lump under there. It seems pretty small, so I'm gonna give it 'til next week and just make sure that it keeps going down. Pain wise, it hasn't really hurt for the past day or so. I've been wearing a bandaid over it to keep fabric from rubbing on it, and will probably wear one again tonight when I go running since it is supposed to be raining but I didn't bother to wear one to work today. I have never gotten chafage to the point of bleeding, although I have gotten sore from it before. Any time I know I'll be in conditions where I might have a problem I just cover up with bandaids and call it good. I've never had any trouble during my marathons from that as a result. This particular problem is actually next to the nipple itself (and now, just underneath it) so I probably don't need a band aid tonight. Never hurts to be prepared though.