I am a new member of this support group.

I am a 55 year old female, recently diagnosed with neuroretinitis, an inflamation of the optic nerve and retina, in my left eye. I was originally misdiagnosed with macular degeneration and the inflammation got so bad that the vision in my left eye degraded to 20/200. Once they realized it was neuroretinitis, I was started on prednisone to calm the inflammation. It worked wonderfully and my vision returned to almost 20/20, with some distortion due to permanent retinal damage.

Unfortunately, the 3 times I've tried to taper off the prednisone, the inflammation returns and vision degrades whenever I get below 20mg/day. I've been on the prednisone since early May and am afraid that it's looking like I may be on it long term. I have started taking fosomax for my already thinning bones and prilosec to protect my stomach.

I have been lucky so far in that I have not experienced too many bad side effects. I've only gained a couple of pounds, but have been exercising obsessively and really watching what I eat.

Anyone else out there have any similar experience or words of wisdom? How long before the really bad side effects start? I'm afraid that at some point I will have to make the choice to lose the vision in my left eye in order to prevent osteoporosis/diabetes/etc.etc. No one would want to choose to lose their vision, but I am an artist, so it is an even more difficult decision.

Thanks to all for sharing your experiences with prednisone. The information is valuable!