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Rash under breast

S

SarahMarie

Member
Messages
11
Hi I’ve had an angry red rash under my left breast for over a week now. I think it started out as a friction rash from my bra but it was warm to touch and very wet/slimy. I went to chemist and they confirmed it was due to friction and gave me an anti fungal cream to treat it saying it should clear in a couple of days. The thing is it’s not clearing up, although the wetness has stopped it is still very red and sore and quite big, it also now feels very scaly.

Could it not be clearing due to my T2 diabetes? Should I phone my dr? I’m only 6 months diagnosed so still getting to grips with everything.

I’ve included a pic for reference.
x
 
I have had that too. I didn't find anything the chemist recommended worked, but athlete's foot powder did. I found the creams just gave the fungus a nice damp environment to thrive in.
 
You may need the stronger version of the canestan cream. I also found that putting a tissue as a bra liner stopped the rubbing and soreness from my bra edge. I had it under my bra edge and it helped absorb any sweat too. Might be time to ask your GP for a different cream.
 
SarahMarie said:
I have lowered my carb intake yes but have been told I don’t need to measure my blood glucose levels at the moment. I’m currently on 500mg slow release metformin taken twice daily.
Click to expand...
The advice not to test is in most cases wrong. It’s based on a) the cost of providing the strips if they agree you need to and b) lack of understanding how testing for type 2 actually works. Medics are used to it only being used to avoid hypos and dose insulin, neither of which apply here. If you test before and after meals you see what that meal did to your levels and how suitable it is rather than wait 6 or 12 months for a test and not having any idea what caused the results. It doesn’t have to be forever everyday. You’ll soon learn which foods work and which don’t - then you can just test occasionally to make sure you’re on track still if you prefer.
 
If you BG is running a little high then I believe that excess glucose in the blood can encourage fungal growth. Might be worth testing to see how you are doing. I know that once I got my BG back to normal levels my incidence of that sort of fungal itch dropped to almost nothing.
 
Smear of nappy cream is great after a wash and careful drying, also slap a piece of cotton hanky or similar on before the bra to stop the skin to skin effect. Hopefully should go in 24 hours.
 
I’m prone to this type of rash, I make sure I shower every day using a very mild body wash, thoroughly rinse, I then pat it dry then make sure it’s totally dry using a cooler setting on my hairdryer. I then use a very sparing amount of Savalon then a sprinkling of medicated talc to keep it dry. This works a great for me as I have to be really careful of getting rashes as I also have psoriasis and any rashes, broken skin etc can turn into psoriasis patch very easily
 
Oh that is very familiar - I used to put folded tissue in my bra band, also changed my bra every day and washed them at 60 degrees - I could smell the fungus on them. Sometimes my skin would open up and that was very painful. No amount of washing and drying helped at all.
As soon as I went low carb and returned to normal blood glucose levels it went away and has not troubled me since.
 
Well I ended up my phoning my dr and have just got home after they gave me a late night appointment. She confirmed that it was a nasty fungal infection and has given me a much stronger cream to use than the one the chemist gave. She also checked my breasts for any other abnormalities as I’d also been feeling intense pain in my left armpit over the weekend too but thankfully all seemed ok. I have an appointment with my diabetes nurse on Tuesday so will also speak to her about possible testing. My hba1c level has dropped since starting on the metformin at Christmas and I’ve also lost 2 stone too so I’m obviously doing something right. Thanks for all your help, I’ll start lining my bra and wearing talc once it clears up
 

I get this, I usually make sure to keep the area dry blotting if I get sweaty and making sure dry myself really well when getting out the shower and lots of savlon normally does the trick! Hope it clears up soon, I know it can be really sore
 

If you are a type 2 diabetic then (as said above) the NHS is very unlikely to stand the cost of you testing your blood glucose.
However, the presence of this fungal infection suggests to me that you would benefit from self testing - providing that you then use what you learn from testing to lower your blood glucose and make such infections less likely in future.
If you want to test, then you will probably have to pay for it yourself.
If you go that route then there is plenty of advice on the forum on how to do it as cheaply as possible.
 
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