Sudden and bad fluid retention on Prednisone.

Hello all, I'm back!

I doubt anyone remembers my previous post, but I'll give a quick update since then. about a month ago I was in the hospital for a flare and my GI doc team seemed ready to remove my colon before trying other meds (such as remicade). Good news is they changed their minds and I'm currently waiting for insurance approval to start remicade. My flare is also currently under control with steroids, so that's good.

On to the main topic, I've been on 40mg of Prednisone for a little under two months with minimal side effects until recently. Last week at my GI follow-up appointment, I weighed about 151 pounds, which is normal for me. A week later I had a follow-up with my primary care doctor and I weighed 160 pounds. I was floored. I knew I was having some fluid retention, as I could feel it in my fingers and toes, but a whole 10 pounds in a week surprised me. What's worse is within three days I have started to have terrible "moon face", which I never had before on Prednisone. I usually have a very defined face/jaw, but now I'm very round-faced and have chipmunk like cheeks. I've always been very self-conscious and have terrible social anxiety. It takes all my courage to just leave the house now.

My main concern is how quickly the fluid retention has come on and is settling in my face. It's all happened, or at least become noticeable, within three days and it seems to get worse each day. Will it stop? Should I actually be concerned if it doesn't or is this normal? And the big question I have, is there anything I can do to reduce the fluid retention?

Some other info:
The only change that's occurred to me since the bad fluid retention is starting a round of Flagyl (hate this antibiotic) due to a c. diff. infection (of which I've had no symptoms to, I was surprised I tested positive). The only other change is my fiance recently bought two gallons of Chick-Fil-A sweet tea, so I've been drinking quite a bit of that. Could any of these changes be the culprit?

Thanks all!

Sodium intake is about the same, and doesn't appear to be an ingredient in the sweet tea. I can try to reduce the amount I have though.

You will probably lose it once you start tapering. I gained 40 lbs in two days on 40 mg of prednisone. I couldn't walk, lift my arms or legs, bathe myself, go to the bathroom. I had such severe water retention and the doctors didn't do a darn thing. Luckily, when I dropped down to 35 mg after a month, it started coming off really fast. I lost all the weight in 3 days through peeing and sweating non stop. I was easily changing my clothes 4 times a day and changing my sheets 2-3 times a night.

That's why I had to stay on 40 mg for over a month!! It took a while to get approved for remicade and my doctor didn't want to drop my dosage until I had 3 infusions. Luckily, my grandma lent me her walker so I could try to get around but the whole experience was completely miserable.