Looking bad/Prednisone/Crohn's-Please help

I got bad acne on my back and chest, I hate it! Also, my face puffed up too and I gained about 15-20 lbs, and it's gone to my stomach and upper chest area. It is really depressing but it's all from the prednisone which I hate to say. There's no way to work it off from what I heard from others, you can work out and all, but it won't help that much (however it is good for yourself and body in the end). Prednisone gives a fluid retention problem, and I was told eat low sodium foods as eating too much salty foods will make it worse, that's what my GI told me as i'm concerned and won't be off pred till early january. Good times, right? Can't wait til it's over, best wishes! :)

Hi LME -
Hang in there. i think at last count I am up to 30 pounds and facial hair! I have lost count of the months I have been on the prednisone, soon as I taper down I have to go right back up. I am currently on 30mg a day and no taper in sight until my flare is controlled.

Thanks so much. This has definitely been a pretty bad period for me and I'm really thankful that a forum like this exists. I'm trying to stay positive and recognize that this is all temporary, but it's hard, especially when I run into people from high school on the street or meet a new person and I can't say to them, "You know, I'm usually a lot hotter than am I now...it's my Crohn's" or "I'm not actually a heroine addict, the tremors are from prednisone." I wound up having to tell more people than I wanted to tell, because I can't drink and I was having tremors and I'm on this restricted diet. about half of my friends just stopped talking to me once I told them what was going on. I don't know if people are just scared of disease or they feel uncomfortable and don't know what to say, but I it was really upsetting to me. My now ex-boyfriend ignored me for a week after I was diagnosed with Crohn's and he's a psychiatry resident who graduated from medical school! He said it was just too upsetting for him to see me that sick...I guess it's good he's my ex-boyfriend. Anyway, that's my rant, which turned into something completely different than the original thread, but I guess I'm upset about so much right now that it's hard to disentangle what part bothers me the most. Thanks again everyone for your response. -Lauren

Try being 137 pounds, size 6-8, and going to 30# and size 12-14. I had to buy a lot of new clothes. Keeping most of my old clothes because I plan on losing it all. I have dropped 10 # by cutting down on sugar and fried foods. I started at 40 mg in Jan and am down to 10 mg now. (Also on entocort 3 mg, just cut down from 6). I started humira 8 weeks ago and am feeling better. Take care of yourself, I find the more stress I am under the worse I feel. Maybe the break-up will be the best thing that ever happened to you. Good luck.

I know how you are feeling, I went through the same thing while on prednisone. I'm normally a very petite girl. I'm 5'3'' and weigh in at about 115. well before steroids anyway. HA. While on pred I was about 130. I know that doesnt sounds like much but to me being a figure competitor in body building competitions that was huge. I had a big hump on my upper shoulders, my face was so swollen I took a picture everyday and sent it to my mom who was living halfway across the world, who was blown away at how my jaw was no longer there, my face was round, bags under my eyes, terrible acne, I wasn't myself anymore, physically and mentally. The steroids made me suicidal because I had lost everything. My mental state was different and I didn't know how to change it. All the doctors just threw more drugs at me. I became depressed. I had moved from Alaska to England. I was dx a 2 weeks after I arrived here, I lost my dream job, the pred caused muscle wasting I lost all my muscles and could barely get out of bed, I could no longer compete in a sport that i loved. I drove my car off the rode in hopes of slamming into a tree. I missed. When I told the doctors about all the mental side effects and physical side effects I was told that they would stop once I stopped taking the medication which I wasn't allowed to do. SO i sought out another GI. He tapered me off the predisone and asacol. I saw a chinese herbal woman who gave me an herbal powder to mix in hot water which tasted awful but he decresead all the water retention and swelling. I've been off Pred since may and my acne has cleared up, my mental state has cleared up. I'm 120pounds so only 5 more to go. I've never had problems rebuilding muscle but since the steroids no matter how hard I train I cant get my body back to the way it used to be. I saw 3 specialist after my inital dx with the military doctors. All agree that I dont have Crohns. I've had multiple scopes, CT, blood work you name it. They all think that I came in contact with a nasty bacteria that ate away at my intestines and the military docs were so ready to jump on the crohns bandwagon because it was the easiest answer to my unexplained sudden onset of symptoms. I was told by my 3 new GIs that it was a bacterial infection that was treated incorrectly with steorids when it could have been cleared up with 10 days of Cipro.  So now my whole life has changed, I'm still battleing with the devestating side effects of Pred and there is nothing I can do about it because Miltiary doctors can not get in trouble for malpractice. If the 3 new docs are wrong and I do reflare, I'm going the alternative route with the liquid diet not steorids.