Hi, Everyone-

I am in my early 30's, now 27+ weeks pregnant, and since about a month into my pregnancy (when, as I found out, the actual pregnancy starts/ attaches), I have been having OBSCENELY PAINFUL episodes of breast pain, daily. It feels like someone is stabbing the flesh of my breasts with knives and searing my nipples with branding irons. The episodes occur randomly, with onset only definitively predictable when I or my breasts are chilled. I cannot bathe/ expose my breasts to cold without medication on hand, or else I suffer a SEVERE attack and am reduced to a rubble of tears and absolute misery. Attacks range in severity/ length.

I have breast implants (for about 17 years now, with no problems until the pregnancy). My breast implants went through incisions made at the base of the areolas, so there IS severe nerve damage there (indicated by spots of deadened sensation). I am desperately hoping to breastfeed, but am not sure if this will be humanly possible, due to my condition.

I have been using opiates or suboxone for the pain. Yes, I know these things are NOT ideal during pregnancy, but they are the only things that work, and no, my doctors do not know, and NO, I am NOT interested in any judgments regarding how I am dealing with this pain!! I have done my research and plan to wean off the opiates with the meager amount of suboxone that it takes to knock out any possible withdrawal (yes, I am taking enough opiates at times to need the suboxone to prevent withdrawal, but only for a day or so), about a month before giving birth, so the baby will NOT experience withdrawal once born. The suboxone also works (but less so than the opiates) to kill the pain during attacks, so I do use it for that, too. I have concluded that this is a viable treatment for my pain since there is ZERO SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE that there are ANY TERATOGENIC EFFECTS from even heavy opiate/ suboxone use during pregnancy. Let me be clear: I have a pain problem, NOT a drug problem, here, so no lecturing. I can and sometimes do go without the drugs (for instance, when I must give urine for prenatal screenings; I'm not stupid and will not risk having my child taken away by CPS!), but then I am in UNBEARABLE PAIN at any given time. The pain is obscene and debilitating.

I was 100% convinced it was Raynaud's phenomenon, but Nifedipine that my GP doc did prescribe did not work. I have since been to see a Rheumatologist and am waiting on the blood test results to see if the problem is autoimmune. She does not think so, as the pain did NOT respond to the Nifedipine (unfortunately), and so, she says, she thinks it's neuropathic. I am just starting my research as to what that even means.

Some of your posts have me a little scared. :-/

I did have chicken pox as a child, so I suppose it's possible it could be shingles-related.

I am desperate for relief (obviously), and I would LOVE to be on some medication that would be safer than opiates for the pain, for the baby's sake.

I am in the middle of a complicated move right now (cross-country, driving with stuff), and the pain is incapacitating, so I need SOMETHING to help me be functional.

Does anyone have any suggestions at all as to what this could be/ how to treat it??

Much obliged.

-Jane