Term damage symptoms and conditions

I'm 15 years old and i've been taking prednisone for a few months, and from what i've read i'm on a really high dose. i was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and another autoimmune disorder concerning my muscles at the same time. my doctor told me prednisone was my only choice; it was either that or i would lose the ability to walk. he told me there'd be side effects, but i had no idea it'd turn out like this or i would have fought harder for another course of action. i started out on 30mg twice a day, and since then was weaned down to 20mg twice a day and now i'm down to 30mg once a day. i've been looking up a bunch of information trying to figure out if there's a way to lessen the side effects or any hope at all that they will get better. apparently there isn't much. after reading a bunch of these stories i gotta say i'm not feeling great about this. i totally understand everything everyone is going through. i'm sure you can imagine what it's like being smack in the middle of high school with a huge puffy face, acne so bad on my face, chest, back, neck, and shoulders that wearing a bra could put me in tears, and mood swings so bad i've lost friends over it. everyone knows how brutal high school can be, where appearance and attitude are everything. and i try to tell my doctor about it and he literally looks at me like i'm a whiny teenager and says "you're just going to have to deal with it." and people like my mom and my closest friends don't get it either. nobody understands how beyond frustrating it is. i'll get into the worst moods and not have a reason for it, but i'll stay angry for hours or burst into tears over someone looking at me the wrong way. it'll get to the point where i have to isolate myself from other people because the abrubt mood changes get so bad. as bad as i hate to admit it, the pain from the arthritis is gone now and supposedly my muscles are doing better too. developing arthritis caused me to have to quit cheerleading, something i've loved doing for 6 years, because the pain got to the point where i couldn't get my arms above my head or bend my knees. however, i'd almost rather deal with the horrible joint pain than deal with the side effects of prednisone. if your doctor gives you and alternative method, take it. i've always been confident in the way i look and really outgoing and happy and now i sometimes catch myself thinking about suicide. that's shocking to me because i've got so much going for me, but this medicine makes me miserable. and when i complain about it, anyone i'm talking to just looks at me like i'm being a cry baby. my mom does too, she'll say things like "you just have to do this. i know it's not what you want but to be honest i'm sick of hearing you bitch about it."
i feel a little better knowing other people feel the same way - like nobody gets whats going on with them. the prednisone does give me days of really great euphoria and days when i feel like i could run a marathon, but waking up in the morning to the acne and huge face puts me to tears every day. i have to pee all the time, usually getting up at 2 or 3 am. i don't sleep well anymore and i do sweat all the time. which also sucks being a teenage girl. i'm always hungry, and when i eat i never feel full so i don't know when to stop. my neck and face have put on so much weight that when people see me in the halls or out and about they ask me what happened. mind you these are people i don't talk to, just ones i know from classes or whatever. and it's pretty bad when teenage boys i've never really talked to ask what happened to your face. kind of a blow to the ego, or whatever is left of it at this point.
i'd like to know if, as my dosage gets lowered, the side effects will diminish and when i'm off the prednisone completely if they will disappear altogether. any help there?
or if there is any way to help the acne or puffy face

my doctor just put me on something called methotrexate or something like that to help wean me off the prednisone, and does anyone know what those side effects will do? or if they'll affect the prednisone side effects?
i'm constantly obsessing over gaining weight and what my skin looks like and what i eat and how heavy my face feels and the occasional pressure in my eyes to the point where i just want to be put out of my misery.
and after reading other people's stories i really don't understand why this drug is still given out as freely as it is. but maybe all doctors are like mine, they just don't get it.
best of luck to anyone who's on prednisone, my heart goes out to you; i'm right there with you
sorry this became like a book it wasn't meant to be this long

I am a 39 year old white male that had aortic valve replacement surgery five years ago. About three months after the surgery (which went off without a hitch) I had a tremendous spike in my BP that went on for a few days (200/100 - enough so I could see my heartbeat in my eyes!). My Dr started me on Toprol XL 75 and while it brought my BP down some, it didn't bring it down a lot. He moved me to 200 mg a day and now my BP is around 105/55 with a resting pulse around 50.

While I experienced many of the side effects listed here (feeling groggy, confused, etc) they only lasted a few months. I must admit that I did pack on about 20 lbs over six months. However, unlike so many who choose to blame drugs (or lack thereof) for their problems, I took it upon myself to start exercising and guess what?!? The weight comes off! I now weigh less than when I graduated high school, I am in better shape than any time in my life and I believe that exercise helps me sleep better at night. All of this even though I still take 200mg a day. Given that some of you say that you're practically dead at taking 25, I should be 6 feet under or weigh 400 lbs.

I guess what I want to say is that perhaps instead of jumping on the bandwagon here that Toprol causes all of your problems, perhaps you want to take your own health into your hands and begin to eat a little better and exercise (and don't give me "but my ankles are swollen!" excuse - there is something called water aerobics). I don't deny that it can cause some side effects, but it can work wonders with your BP. You just have to DO SOMETHING to help keep the weight off (which then help with the sleep problems, mental clarity, etc).

i am on my second pack of Yasmin. In the beginning,i got really sick to my stomach, probably because my body was getting used to the pill. As soon as i began the week of sugar pills, i had terrible headaches on one side of my head. the headaches lasted about a week, and by the end of it, i was ready to lose my mind. now, today,i woke up and began feeling very dizzy and numb all over my body.after a few minutes my vision was fading until it got to the point where all i could see was outlines of things. Everything looked like a picture with really high contrast.i looked at my mom and her face was bright white with black detailing. it was really weird. i also noticed a sort of white glow all over everything. i was so terrified. i am not the type of person who ever faints or anything, so this was really odd. it went away after about 5 minutes, but it was so scary that it felt like an hour had passed. I'm not 100% sure if this is caused by Yasmin, but i haven't done anything different that would make this happen to me. i am going to the doctors, but in the mean time, i'm going to stop taking the pill. please let me know if anyone else has had an experience like this

Our 7 year old son has been old singulair since he was about 3. I can't even describe in words how I feel as a parent knowing now what my son has been going through. He (just like the others) has been very emotional and become very timid and has had a couple of panic attacks. I really began noticing it when his doctor bumped up his dose several months ago. He began talking about death and morbid things quite frequently. His doctor also has diagnosed him with ADHD. Over the past several months I took him to the doctor for extreme leg pain and once to the emergency room for crippling abdominal pain. They couldn't find anything wrong with him. We've taken him OFF of singulair forever and few days ago and him bright and positive personality seems like is beginning to come back. I just hope that he has suffered long-term damage from taking this medicine. At this point, we can only hope and pray that everything will be fine.

My mother was given avelox for a bronchial infection appoximately one week ago. Within 3 days she developed large pustules on her arms, legs, neck and a few on her trunk. She suffered from dizziness, memory loss, confusion and paranoia. She had panick attacks due to the itching which was severe. A trip to redi care brought no help, the staff said they had never seen anything like it and provided a topical steroid cream. Her family physician who prescribed the drug did not seem concerned at all. She is depressed and has had dizzy spells causing her to fall. My mother is 76 and although not as sharp as she used to be she is very concerned about any long term damage this drug may have caused. I am attempting to get her in to another clinic for treatment as her primary DO acts as though the whole thing is no big deal. The area worst effected is behind her knees and on the inside of her arms. I have read the side effects regarding tendonitis and tendon damage and am very concerned.