Prednisone

[Chica]

Ugh. I never realized how much you could hate something so essential to survival. The weight gain, the ravening hunger - my mom and I often joked up how I lovingly sidled up to the fridge looking for pickles or olives or ANYTHING! The moon face, the buffalo hump, the hair in unwanted places, the stretch marks - actually stretch canyons. I put on 70 pounds in a matter of months. Now that I'm on the maintenance dose of 5 mg, the weight has gone but not the scars. Inside and outside. I will forever feel like I don't recognize myself in the mirror. The trembling, the hot flashes, the insomnia, the mood swings are enough to make you feel crazy - I actually verged on paranoid some days. But when it takes away all the pain that is involved in severe inflammation, prednisone is like manna from the Gods! Consider it simply a lifelong love-hate relationship. Can't live with it, can't live without it. I do try to avoid higher doses at all costs if I can....but sometimes it's just unavoidable. Remember there is always a light at the end of the tunnel and eventually that prednisone is going to do what it's meant to and you won't need to take so much anymore.....

[capabayan]

Now that I'm on the maintenance dose of 5 mg, the weight has gone but not the scars.

I'm finally down to 10 mg, and have been for a few months now. Unfortunately none of the 40 pounds I've put on is coming off... even though the stretch canyons are most definitely appearing!! For someone who has always been on the smaller side, being overweight is quite depressing at times! What I really need now is an exercise buddy - but most of my friends work outside the home and want to do more than just walk once around the block, which is all I can handle right now. Oy!!

[crackers]

I certainly know where you are coming from with the mirror John says the same thing,it didn't help when he went to a clinic and one of the nurses said well you have certainly got the moon face associated with steroids if i had been there i would have insulted her too.
Hugs to you all
Sue xx

[nordberg]

These purple spots on hands and arms....not raised, not painful, appear, then fade, then new ones appear. Are they from Prednisone or Cytoxan or the WG itself ? They actually look like little old man liver spots..... just what I needed. N.

[andrew]

From my experience, unlikely related to the meds but more to the WG. How long have these spots been appearing? Have you reduced any meds (particularly Pred) at or about the same time as getting the spots?

[Sangye]

I agree with Andrew. I've had them on my legs since before the Wegs was diagnosed. They're common with Wegs, and usually indicate active disease. I had tons without the meds. Being on Cellcept only, I still get a fair amount, but mostly just when I'm overtired (which is almost every day *sigh*).

[Carol]

My purple lesions were an early indicator of the disease so I was on no drugs at all at that point. In fact although they tooked terrible - on my knuckles, raised and watery they were a very good signal that something was drastaically wrong. At the same time I had red lesions on my legs and arms which looked like ringworm and also small watery blisters on my face. I'm actually quite grateful for them as I sat in the doctors surgery stripped down to bra and nickers (fortunately had the good balck ones on that day) and doctors kept coming in for a look and making suggestions about what tests they could do on me. I was an interesting specimen in a country surgery! They have gradually faded.