Hi all,

This is the first time I am posting on this forum, but I have read it with interest many times. It's comforting to know it exists.

My father was diagnosed with Wegener's almost 2 years ago, and went from a Prednisone/Cyclophosphamide combo for 9 months to Prednisone alone for about 6 months, and unfortunately relapsed during that time. He has now moved straight to Rituxan, and had his first dose in Dec/Jan. His first maintenance dose is scheduled for this July.

In the meantime, his Rhematologist has him tapering his prednisone, and he has just moved down to 5mg/day. But it seems like since he started tapering (was on 10mg/day for a long while, and then went to 7.5mg, and now 5mg), his GP has become concerned with his blood pressure and cholesterol levels! Can this be a side effect of tapering? Or could this be something he was experiencing before (maybe due to the prednisone??) and he just never noticed? He has never had blood pressure problems, and now has random blood pressure spikes (that are very high!) throughout the day. His GP has also told him to increase his cholesterol medication.

He has also been having a lot of pain/pressure in his eyes. Could this be from the prednisone?

Sorry about all the questions. Any experience or thoughts are appreciated as this is all still so new to us.