AUTHOR: Kat and Kev TITLE: What a Stroppy Cow (me that is!) DATE: 7/19/2007 08:05:00 AM ----- BODY:

So DS and I have thrush AGAIN. I have a bit of a chronic problem with yeast, particularly in my ears, so it was no surprise to feel that familiar hot-knitting-needle-being-jammed-into-my-breast pain. I did exactly as I had been told to do if it comes back--Phone the HV. This I did and she advised that I should see a GP. Fine. So I phoned up this morning at the alloted time to speak to the Guardian of GPs Time, our practice nurse. I explain the problem and she says no worries, I'll get you a script for Fluconizole and you can pick it up at lunch time. Lunch time arrives and I trot into the practice to pick it up. It hasn't been signed. OK, I'll wait. The receptionist returns and says, I'm sorry but I can't give the script as Fluconizole can't be given to BFing women. I explain that it can, and has been given to me previously by this same practice. Thus ensues the drama. Running back and forth between me and the practice nurse and the GP, the receptionist keeps insisting that I have NEVER been given Fluconizole before that it "does something to the milk" and I wouldn't have been prescribed it. I explain that I have been given it before and that no the cream and Nystatin for DS will not solve the problem. How could it if it is deep in my milk ducts?? I then begin quoting research from the BFN about the use of fluconizole in BFing. That while its not licensed for use in BFing mothers, that is merely b/c its not lucrative for the company to do so. All studies have shown the amount that goes through the milk is actually less than what the license is for an infant dose. This went on for half an hour. Finally the practice nurse comes up and says that this is all I am going to be given and that I need to leave. Please note that I remained nothing but calm and collected. At this stage irritation and blind panic begins to set in. I inform the practice nurse that I am about to get on a plane to the US for one month. I will have no access to routine health care and if I don't get something I will probably have no other choice but to give up BFing as thrush is worse than childbirth (none of this is an exaggeration). And how would that look on their BFing stats (my practice has some of the lowest in Scotland) and sorry, what was your name again? She finally agrees that I can see a GP about it. But, I am informed, if one GP says something, they all will say the same thing. Dr. B is certain that the cream and Nystatin will clear it up for both of us, but if I want to waste my and the NHSs time that is up to me. And that this practice has NEVER given Fluconizole to a BFing woman and NEVER will. So I trot down to the OTHER health centre on the other side of town to see a GP. I walk in and she hands me the script and says sorry about all that, have a nice trip to the US. Obviously its a good outcome as I have my script and I can get us started before I embark on a 18 hour flight alone with an infant with reflux! However, you just wonder what would happen if I didn't know my stuff?? I find it absolutely shocking the lack of awareness of BFing in the NHS. We had loads of problems at first and were given terrible advice by some of the nurses and midwives. Its only that we had an IM and I found a community group on my own that I am still feeding DS myself!! Why does it have to be such a battle? ARGH!!!! and WOO HOO for being stroppy! :)

----- --------