undesired puffy cheeks!

[young butterfly]

<span style="font-family:Arial"><div align="left">hi, hope everyone reading this is fine.

i've got a query. my doctor recently prescibed me immunosuppresnt and steroids to control my lupus sle, but i found that they made my cheeks go puffy and really noticeable. when i wake up in the morning what ever side my face is being slept on, is really swollen and it takes a while for it to settle down and become 'normal'. i just wanted to know if any one has any tips on how to get rid of the facial puffiness. it quite embarrassing and it realy affecting my confidence.i spoke to my doctor but he said there was really anything that he could do, it a undesire side effect and when my lupus come under control (which may take about a year plus) it will be reduced to.

i was told to keep salt intake in the evenings to a minimum in the evening as it can cause water retention. do facial toning devices which send tiny electric impluses to the muscle make any difference?

any help will be much appreciated. style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Thanx.gif style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif </div></span>

[raggedyann1]

Young Butterfly,

Unfortunately the puffy cheeks are part of taking prednisone. There really isnt much you can do about. Keep salt intake down, drink lots of water and eat healthy foods. Most of this will help more with weight gain that will also come with the prednisone. What is prednisone doing for you? you could be asking yourself. Prednisone can literally save the lives of lupus patients. Please don't ever stop taking prednisone cold turkey you could go into adrenal failure and die.

Which immune suppressant did your doctor start you on? Did he also prescribe plaquenil? Plaquenil can take 2-3 months to start working and then many patients are able to taper off the steroids. For some patients it can take a full year to get their lupus under control but that doesn't mean it will take that long for you. I think your doctor was wise to give you the outside limits that are possible.

Can you find someone you can talk to about your lupus? Our chatroom here is a great place for support and encouragement. There are also local lupus support groups in some cities. Some people also find they need to talk to a counselor of some type about having a chronic illness and all the issues that go with it. Including the physical changes that prednisone causes.

Let us know how you get on.

Take care,
karen

[Fishaholic]

I get that side effect too and hate it. I have been on pred up and down for 6 years. You can tell what dose I'm on by how puffy my face is! The plus side in that is that it DOES sort itself out once you get the steroid down to a lower dose or come off it altogether (which lots of people can do). But however much I hate it, I know that steroids are necessary and I must just put up with the side effects.

I hope that you will be able to reduce your steroids soon. But as raggedyann said, don't do it until your rheumy tells you, and even then you will have to reduce it a little bit at a time. This is because your body often stops producing its own steroids and so if you stop taking them, you end up with none at all, which can be fatal.

But the puffy face side effect WILL go away the moment you can come off the steroids or get them to a low dose. Just hang in there and try as much as possible to ignore it. I do realise how difficult that is. I'm not very good at it myself!

Hugs, Sarah.

[Mariposa]

style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/overhere.gif Hi,

Unfortunately, most of us experienced the same puffiness problem when been on predisone.
But once off, the face begans to recup its shape back to normal.
Hang in there and take care, style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/shakehands.gif