Weeds 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

Well here goes, I paranoid, cant go to the bathroom a lot of times, sweaty t times, sick at stomach here and there, get cold limbs sometimes. Cant remember short term at all, I honestly forget 1 minute ago , but not all the time, there is long term memory loss, which i really hate, NERVOUSNESS is horrible, stress and anxiety can be very high , unless my life is in an ideal status which is nearly never, I do get flu effects on and off, I must change patches every two days 10 percent of patients must do this, or you get withdrawals, and that is an experience in its own, you get body tremors really bad back aches, all over. nausea, tremors. If you get really hot a sweat because of the enviroment my patch runs out qucker and then you feel like you are about to collpase from to much drugs, its sort of like you get so weak and thirsty you feel like you will drop dead any moment. so avoid hig heated areas for lenghty time. I double cover my patch with clothing if outdoors without a choice.Im aggressive at times and then im often very depressed, a lot of times. Crying spells , stupid stuff i cant control, and Im no wimp so its hard to deal with. Im an ex jarhed so the weakness is character is hard to swallow. However if I didn't wear this patch i couldnt make it through a day without so much pain, that it would be unbearable. I was in the hospital weekly before this patch. I have severe back issues, things that cant be fixed, well thats it in a nutshell, there is more but you can ask me if you want, i have been on the patch for 3.5 years.

0This is a followup to an email I sent on July 22nd about my mirena experiences. see samsmom on on July 22 for original email.)

I AM SO HAPPY!!!!!

I got in early with my ob/gyn, she had a cancellation!! WOO WOO!!

That was on Monday, July 28th. I cannot tell you how good it felt to get out. No really, when they pulled it out it cramped for a second, but it felt like my body breathed after that. You know what it feels like when you get a kernel of popcorn out off your teeth and how relieved your gums feel after you finally get it out. Well that was the feeling!!

My hand to GOD--by Tuesday, the fogginess I was feeling in my head was gone. I sneezed all night long Monday night and my nose ran like the dickens, but I think that the sinusitis I started to get (never had it before mirena) was actually draining itself out of my head. NO longer did my face feel like there were rocks in it, no longer did I feel like I was walking around in an out of body experience type state. I even felt less mean and moody. These were my instant results.

I am looking forward to weight loss again, this is the biggest I have ever been (excpet pregnancy 143), I am now 130. But I am not as VORACIOUSLY hungry anymore--and the sweets craving is gone.

I forgot to post this, but I also noticed when mirena was in that I was getting facial hair on my chin (like a guy). Not like a beard, but a few stray whiskers here and there that seemed to grow back like weeds. Unfortunately I cannot say that getting rid of mirena stopped the whiskers, because I got them lasered---but that was how bad it was. A lot of unusual hair pattern growth issues in women are linked to hormones. Also what I find interesting is how can the progestine time release in mirena be a one-size-fit-all for women. I mean you have women who are 6 feet and 150 lbs and 4.5 feet women who weigh 90. Does that mean there bodies are equipped to handle the same dosage? HMMMMMM Questions I should have asked.

I hope you consider getting yours removed. I hope that you see results like mine. I feel more in tuned to life, my son and my husband. More energy, less anxious and stressful, the night time nausea and dizziness is totally gone!

Take care!

I am an individual that started taking Singulair about a year ago. I've had allergies to weeds, grasses, and pollens since I was a little girl and have taken a variety of meds including Claritin, Zyrtec, Allegra, Flonase, and allergy shots. Last summer, my usual Claritin just wasn't enough so my doc prescribed Singulair. It worked wonders for my allergies. Soon after, I began to feel "numb" -- that's the best word to describe what I felt. I was depressed. It just so happened that my mother had had surgery and I had moved to a different city about the same time as beginning the Singulair. When I began feeling depressed and disconnected from the world, my doc and I contributed it to depression from life transitions. It didn't go away though. For a year, I isolated myself. I didn't talk to friends and family. I missed over 10 days of work just because I didn't want to get out of bed. I slept almost 15 hours a day, gained 60 lbs, didn't clean my house. I didn't really do anything and I didn't care. I felt so disconnected from the world. I didn't cry. I didn't feel suicidal, but I knew that something was wrong with me. I thought I was having a breakdown or something. My doc checked several things but all test results were normal. It wasn't until my mother seen a CNN report on Singulair that I began to link my depression to when I started the drug. I immediately quit taking Singulair and felt better within 4-5 days. After 2 1/2 weeks, I was back to being my old self. It was so scary feeling so isolated, numb, and disconnected from the world. I never would've thought about it being a side effect from an allergy medicine.

I had a Kenalog injection for severe hayfever a month ago during my period. The hayfever was cured immediately. However I wasn't told of any side effects. My period lasted for 2 weeds which was most unusual and another started a few days later. It didn't even look like a period as the bleeding was black. I was extremely worried as i had severe stomach and back pain. My doctor mentioned that it could be a miscarriage until I reminded him of the injection which he then told me of the side effects. I was still charged for the doctor's visit!

I see no mention of youngsters having a Kenalog shot. I have had Kenalog shots for an allergy to weeds sometimes twice a year. My son has had 6 shots since he was 6 he is now 10. Recently my step child was having trouble and all 3 of us got a shot- she's 14. It did not help her, later we brought her to another Dr. and he seemed upset that we had the shots and that they could hurt my childrens physical development. I have some concerns that there might be something to that - particularly worried for my son. Are others familiar with it being used often on children his age.

I am 33 years old and and am going next week for my fourth shot. I'm due to get t a total of six for adenomyosis which is similar to enym. I had surgery three months ago to remove fibroids but found out I had this condition. I have not slept in three months. I get up an average of four to six times a night. The hot flashes are the absolute worst so my doctor put me on premrin which has helped with the intensity of the hot flashes, but it makes my eyes very puffy. Since I have been on lupron, I have gained some weight and no matter how hard I work out, I can't seem to drop the pounds. My hair is growing like weeds and my memory (I'm in grad school) is beyond frightening. I can't remember one minute to the next which is really disturbing. I don't have periods anymore. My sex drive has not changed. I'm hoping this is working and I was just wondering if anyone out there went through this and went back to normal and if they did, how long did it take? It's nice to know I'm not as alone as I thought I was before I read all these testimonials.