problems, problems,going off prednisone
 

Hi All.,
I have been on a low dose of prednisone of 10 mg eod for 5 months now., it has helped some with my fatique and arm and leg weakness and droopy eye lids, but not helping with my ocular myasthenia(The distorted vision). I take mestinon with it was needed.
So It was time for my yearly eye appt with the eye md., he is the one who originally diagnosed me., so I go in first., my eye pressure is 30 in my left eye and 26 in my right eye., I have a cataract in my right eye., He advised to go off the prednisone., and gave me drops for my left eye with the 30 pressure saying I am on my way to glaucoma., he thought he could maybe give me prisms in my glasses to help the vision., but said he could not., he says the pain and throbbing and pressure I have been having in my left eye is from the pressure in the eye. So between the mg., glaucoma, cataract seeing at work for close figures and computers is difficult. I have to see him in two weeks., to see if the drops help. In the meantime I call my neurologist., he says 10mg of prednisone eod is a very minimal dose., but he will taper me off by taking 5 mg every other day for a week and thats it., He says he knew the prednisone was no helping my vision but it was helping the other physical issues., so he might have to put me on Imuran or cellcept.., so thats that for
now , my husband has a prosthetic for his left eye and right eye has had detached retinas., and his optic nerve is thinning and has other issues., so this is just craziness. I am 59 never had any eye problems in my life., I do have to say my pressure in my eyes have always ran a little high., but they were never too concerned as they were between 20 and 22. Anybody else have any of these issues? What is Imuran or cellcept.,??? what are the side effects., please advise.
Thank you

Hey whirlwind- I have been on cellcept and now am on imuran. I take 60mg of prednisone a day along with monthly ivig. The cellcept- is a rejection drug (used in transplant patients to help with immunocomprimising the system before surgery-) it helps in Mg by also suppressing the immune system. As does imuran. I hated cellcept and was on it 7 months- horrible pains and headaches along w dizziness and foggy headed. I don't reccomend it, but idk.

Imuran- same type of thing- but I think it gives me less to no side affects at all. All my side affects are due to the high dose of pred I think now


Good luck

Hi whirlwind,
I have the same problems as you, glaucoma and catararact but I've been taking much more Pred than you for almost four years, up to 75 mg/d and now down to 13 mg/d.
I had surgery for cataract on one eye 3 years before MG and had to have the other eye done two years ago, Make sure that the eye surgeon and the anestheasist both know that you have MG, so they can select the appropriate products for your case.
As far as glaucoma is concerned, I also had internal eye pressure going up beyond 30 in both eyes and this is adequately controled (now down to 14) with eye drops mornings and evenings (10 mg/ml of brinzolamide and 0.3mg/ml of bimatoprost) . You have to be careful as some products used to reduced high internal eye pressue are strictly forbidden for MGer's.
I have another problem correlated with glaucoma, reduced eye sight broadness (?) as the high internal eye pressure compresses the optical nerve and gradually damages it...
Ask your ophtalmo for a test.
Now for Cellcept, I've been taking it since the beginning (2 g/d then reduced to 1.5 g/d) without any beneficial effect nor adverse side effects. It may cause skin cancer and patients are advised not to expose themselves to sun rays...
Personaly, I would prefer Imuram to Cellcept but they both require several months (like 6 months) to kick in.
Good luck to you!
Maurice.