Horrible "moon" face

I’m a newbie. I’ve recently been diagnosed with SLE a few months ago and already have stage 3 kidney nephritis. Doctors thought i had this for years! I had no symptoms that made me go to the doctor except that my knees were hurtimg and my hands were swollen, only thought i had arthritis or something “simple” then after bloodwork everything changed. I start immunotherapy therapy meds next week which means an increase in my prednisone to 60mg a day! I already developed a “moon” face just by taking the 40mg a day. The other day a guy asked me of i had mumps! I was so embarrassed.

A rough ride coming up I was on 60 a day for nearly 2 years for the same reason- result is that I have been able to avoid dialysis and kidney transplant for 40 years Although a bad time of my life I am thankful for the outcome Hang in there!

Hey Delois, welcome to the community. Sorry to hear what you are going through; anything altering physical appearances is absolutely mind-blowing, especially being a girl and especially dealing with the ignorance of others who don't mind asking blatant questions. I remember when I had first started prednisone and I developed stretch marks on my inner elbows, and someone really had the nerve to ask me if they were track marks from drug use (-_-) and that was in middle school. In addition to all the questions I got about my face and overall weight gain. I did just brush it off, giggle and say "no", but it did hurt my feelings. And needless to say, I learned really fast that jackasses will be jackasses. It sucks, but we really have to try and focus on the outcomes we are trying to get by being on all of these medications, and that we are just trying to achieve better health and better life. Wishing you the best of luck with everything, and we're all here for you!

I'm sorry. I hope you find answers. Good luck.