first, response to pred. is an excellent sign. most people that respond to pred. will eventually go into remission.

second, pred. has a lot of short and long term side effects , and there are many things you can do to minimize them.

eating low salt diet (or even no salt diet), can signifcantly effect the way your face and legs will become swollen.

making sure you get enough calcium and vitamin D (and it is advisable to actually check the levels of vitamin D, because you may need much more then you think), can minimize the ill effects on your bones.

eating a well balanced diet, with out adding sugar, can minimize the risks of having steroid induced diabetes.

and excercising as much as you can (if you can of course).

and...

there is an excellent book, called- coping with prednison, which was written by eugene zuckerman (a flute player who became ill) and her sister, Julie Ingelfinger, a physician from mass. general.

I higly recomend this book to anyone taking pred.

and last but not least, once the good effects of pred. are well-established, it is very important to start tapering it down and at the same time use a steroid-sparing agent, which will help maintain what has been achieved with, hopefully, less side effects.

alice