Lisa, I'm afraid I'm going to be a dissenter.

I realize that the eye issue is a problem for your daily life. What would your daily life be if you had Pred-induced diabetes, frail bones, increased infections, suppressed immune system (catching everything those kids had to offer that could wind up making MG go generalized), steroid-induced muscular pain, and so many other lovely things they guys have already laid out.

I personally think doctors do this Pred thing all wrong. Why start with a high dose? Why make patients go through months of tapering, which they often don't do successfully. And then, when they do, they want the heck off of the drug due to all of the side effects and adverse effect on their life?

Why not start with a small dose, every other day (that's not a recommendation, but a real question to doctors)? And I mean SMALL. A person can always go up, but going down is the problem.

Have you seen a neuro-ophthalmologist for tips?

I'm on an inhaled steroid for asthma. Even that creates issues.

And another thing doctors don't talk about is the cancer risk. What is the cancer profile of your family?

There are conditions that Pred creates that can't be undone. And some that can't be undone very quickly. Even if you take calcium and Vit. D, you can have teeth and bone issues.

And did your doc even mention that Pred is an anti-prostaglandin and that you should be taking good ones or eating fish, etc? It's not only an immunosuppressant! It gets rid of both bad and good prostaglandins, which help with many functions of the body.

And, yes, there have been a smattering of studies showing that immunosuppression "might" keep OMG from progressing to generalized MG. And there are also studies that show patients with OMG can have a positive SFEMG in areas other than the face, meaning that it is already affecting other areas, but not so much that you would notice yet.

This is a very personal choice and it's up to you what you'll do. But I would highly recommend speaking to both your internist and your neurologist about the effects of it again.

Do you want one problem, albeit an annoying one that interferes with your daily life, or a multitude of them from Pred?

I'm only posing questions and putting thoughts out there because I have seen so many people suffer from this drug. Yes, I've also seen people, such as those with lupus, benefit greatly from it. But I have to honestly say that this drug is very destructive and you cannot underestimate the damage that it can do to varying systems within your body.

I'm not very good at sugar-coating anything. You have the right to consider ALL of the issues of this drug, and whether another drug might be more useful for you.

Also, you have to look at this in view of your overall health, lifestyle, and diet. Those are very important factors. Do you sleep enough? Eat enough nutritious foods? Are you a carboholic, which could be problematic with Pred?

Also, consider what effect Pred can have on your female hormones as well.

Again, I'm not telling you what to do!!! But doctors don't often go over all of the bad stuff because they want to be useful and solve that ptosis issue.

I hope you do well on it.

Annie