PredniSONE and freak

I have been on prednisone since November 2007 for minimal change disease, 65 mg, in May I started to decrease the dosage (per Drs. orders) and by the time I got to 15 mg all my symptoms came back and I swelled up again. I was again put on a higher dosage of prednisone and put on Cytoxan 75 mg. I am now decreasing prednisone, back to 15 mg every other day and will be off Cytoxan next month. Hopefully this will work. Right now my main complaint of side effects is chest pressure, anything I eat or drink makes my stomach swell and I feel like I can never take a full breath. I recently had chest and abdoman xrays and an ultrasound, all negative. Does anyone have this symptom? I also have moon face, weight gain, hump on back, insomnia, headaches, digestive problems ,shakes, night sweats, vision problems, extreme tiredness and hair loss. How long before all this goes away?

I am a 34 year old male. I have been on 80mg of Prednisone 7 days a week for 2 months now. I will be getting my dosage lowered to 60mg tomorrow but am having a difficult time dealing with the Moon face, eye bags, acne, and sleepless nights. I go to the gym 4 times a week and am in shape other than this freak fake head it looks like I have now. Has anyone been able to find a way to make the effects not so noticable..as in diurex or diet pills. I would like to try anything but want to be safe at the same time. Thanks for any help and god bless. David

I sat down tonight to look up the side effects of Prednisone and an hour later am sitting her feeling both reassured and in disbelief. What a crazy drug! I have a side effect that no one else mentioned - maybe it's not the Prednisone? I had a sever respiratory infection that caused my Asthma to spin out of control. By the time I saw the doctor I was pretty sick and once again, he doled out the Pred. I've only been on it (this time) for 6 days and the taste in my mouth is unbearable. My tongue feels swolen (along with the rest of my body) and hairy! What's that? No one else mentioned this. My mouth constantly tastes like "morning breath" or like I've been eating trash. What do I do to try to get rid of it? I EAT and EAT and EAT!

This drug is so powerful. I'd rather use an inhaler every 3 hours than feel this FAT and have this taste in my mouth. Will the swolen weight gain feeling go away on it's own or will I have to turn into a workout freak? Someone let me know!