Prednisone Help Needed

Hi Gab

Well it depends on why you have had the Prednisone and how much longer you will be on it

i would really let your Doctor know about the Puffy face as that can be from other causes or you may need to take Lower Doses as it seems fairly soon to be getting the "face" i'd really check it out,

the weight gain you can loose once you stop taking it.

i have been on Prednisone of Varying Doses for aprox 20 years and in that time have stacked on the weight .

Wish i knew why the weight gain

i really would check out about your face tho dont let that keep going without letting Doc know.

I had a moon face and facial hair when on high doses of prednisone. Both went away when I got down under 10 mgs a day. The weight was stubborn but it did come off after I was completely weaned a few months later with A LOT of hard work! All the best to you

I gained about 33 lbs. but luckily (?) when I was sick I had lost 23 lbs. which had me downright scrawny so I only had 10 to lose. When I say hard I had to limit myself to 1000- to 1200 calories a day and I had to do 30 minutes of exercise (did a exercise program on TV that was both low impact aerobics and light weight lifting. It took awhile for my metabolism to get working. Plus I had some muscle wasting due to the prednisone so it felt like it was more effort then usual. I started out by just walking 30 mins 3 x per week and there were so many days when I felt so fatigued I just wanted to sit down on the curb and cry. I'm also more than twice your age so you may have an easier time of it.

I can't take prednisone. They put me on it when my ulcerative colitis flares so badly its likely I'll either bleed to death or need to have a coloncetomy. I was close serveral times, but so far, still have my colon intact.

I get so sick with prednisone. My face swells like a parade float balloon, my sugar goes sky high and my blood pressure also becomes very high. I also seem to get dizzy spells and severe chest pains. I was in the hospital for several days because I was sure I was having a heart attack last year. I would almost rather die than take it.

Most people tolerate it better than I do. I'm taking a lot of other meds, but prednisone scares me. Also, once you get sick from it, you can't just quit, you have to wean yourself off, meaning the bad side affects go on for months! I always seem to feel the worst when I'm weaning off of it.

Gab, I got off prednisone March 2010 for rheumatoid arthritis. Your moon face, big stomach and other prednisone weight will go away. But it takes forever. I saw it starting to go away slowly about 6 months after I quit prednisone. It is extremely important that you taper very slowly so that your adrenal glads can start making cortisol on their own.

I always started feeling the worst side-affect when I started tapering, and got down to about 20 mgs. By then it seems as if you'll never get off, and I'm always tempted to try to shorten the tapering off, but that just makes it worse. A lot of people do well on it, but I'll only take it for a severe flare of ulcerative colitis if nothing else is working.

The longer you're on pred, the longer moonface sticks around. I've heard, if you're on a month, it will take a month to go away and I've heard that some people start seeing moonface go away before they are even off prednisone and a few never got moonface.

For me, I have had it since I was tapering, I have been off two months and I still have it a little bit. It is getting better but I have a ways to go. I was on pred for a long time. I didn't start to see side effects reduce until I was under 4mg. I would imagine I may not see the end of this moon face for 4 more months. That's what I get from the research I've done. Hopefully it is gone sooner but it could take a year I guess.