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Prednisone and puffiness under eyes

Posted , 15 users are following.

Twopies
Twopies

ever since I've been on prednisone, my face and eyes look puffy...like I'm a sick person (which I am, right?). I developed pmr in August 2016 and started pred September 2016.  I don't have moon face but my eyes always look "sick".  Like I'm suffering from an allergy.

about the same time as the pmr, I developed corneal edema (mild case) and cataracts--never ever had any eye issues before, only wear reading glasses occasionally.  (I blame pmr for these issues but that's another story probably).  Anyway, yesterday I saw my eye doc and asked about the bags under my eyes...will they go away when I get off prednisone?  To my utter amazement, he said no!  That once the soft tissue becomes fluid filled, it loses elasticity and won't go away.  His solution:  ice packs 3-4 times a day for the rest of my days.  I sorta started blubbering--not because I'm so vain, it's just that another annoying side effect has befallen me from this whole journey.  Yes, I know there are a lot more horrible side effects, but still....he said I could see a plastic surgeon,  nope, never.

so today when I saw my gp, I told him my sob story--he concurred--in fact, he, too, had seen a plastic surgeon for bags under his eyes; the plastic surgeon told him the same thing, plus the surgeon said he preferred to never do surgery because it wasn't recommended,  he said.

anyone else have puffiness under their eyes?  Anyone ever have it go away?  Sometimes mine is worse than others, caused by fluid retention from the prednisone.  I hope you don't think I'm vain, I'm kind of an earth woman, not much makeup or bling, just curious as to yet another seemingly never-ending turn of events along this pmr journey.

 

2 likes, 27 replies

27 Replies

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  • carolyn44300
    carolyn44300 Twopies

    Posted

    Yep! Me too. Keep hoping it will go as, unlike you, I’m very vain! 
  • Rudivl
    Rudivl Twopies

    Posted

    Yes, you can see it in my eyes too. Blurry, watery, puffy...... :0( the worse I feel, the worse my eyes are. It’s a gauge for my husband to how I’m doing! 
  • lilian05079
    lilian05079 Twopies

    Posted

    Hi Twopies

    Yes i had all that. Preds affected my eyes big time!.. i had blepheritis and sjorgens extremely dry eyes and mouth no saliver had to use a spray to moisten my mouth as my tongue was stuck to the roof...i had to constantly put drops in my eyes artificial tears...yes and puffy bags..all gone now!!..i have darkish circles not as bad as pred days and a good makeup does wonders. My eyes are fine now except for cataracts but they don't bother me..like you i never had any probs with my eyes before preds...as i said in my other post it will all go away from you once your off preds and 6-12 months after.....best wishes Twopies you'll get there...

    • Twopies
      Twopies lilian05079

      Posted

      Let me understand—no puffy eyes now that you’re off pred?  There’s hope??? Really??? I’m getting kinda giddy here...(blame it on the pred, lol!).  Eye doc said it was permanent...which is what upset me (blame that on the pred too).
    • lilian05079
      lilian05079 Twopies

      Posted

      Hi Twopies

      No i have no puffy eyes now....i can now see my eyes..they were so puffy i could hardly see my eyes....due to puffiness, soreness and dryness. I thought they would be like it forever, but no there right back to normal with just slight darkish circle as already mentioned. My opthalmologist said i would always have blepheritis that's gone too....it won't happen as soon as you are off preds it will take some months for all the side effects to go away....but they will.....and yes there's hope because if your eyes have puffed up since on preds obviously the preds are causing the puffiness so it will go once off preds...best wishes Twopies

  • Reeceregan
    Reeceregan Twopies

    Posted

    Yes, ditto. Exactly the same as rudivi. I have both PMR and GCA. Feels like the water will run out of my eyes. The worse I feel the more I puff and hubby just has to look at me and knows. Eyesight is shot to pieces and getting worse. Dark circles are taken care of with a peach colour corrector, then makeup then concealer. Helps a lot. 
  • Anhaga
    Anhaga Twopies

    Posted

    Haven't tried this myself as instead of puffy eyes I have deepset eyes with black circles, raccoon eyes.  However I've read that applying wet teabags to the eyes can help reduce puffiness.  Something to do with the astringency of the tea?

  • christophe38948
    christophe38948 Twopies

    Posted

    Hi,

    There is not a Puffy face but also the blurry vision occurs. It happened irregularly that I prepared two pairs of glasses to watch TV. Thank for your thoughts.

    Good Luck

    CW

  • EileenH
    EileenH Twopies

    Posted

    Mine has been worse at higher doses, my whole face was puffy and typically Cushingoid. It has almost all gone - all I have now is slight bags under my eyes but no worse than my mother had at the same age. Cutting carbs led to 35lbs weight loss - and keeping carbs low and salt left out means I don't develop the puffiness. Both tend to retain fluid when you are on pred.

    • Twopies
      Twopies EileenH

      Posted

      Well, all of these responses have been most interesting for me because they seem to indicate that my eye doc was wrong--the puffiness undear my eyes most likely is not permanent, that it will recede, at least somewhat, when I get off the pred.  He was so confident that it's a lifelong condition, that I will need to ice for the rest of my life....the posts here seem to say that that might not be the case, at least not for everyone.

    • EileenH
      EileenH Twopies

      Posted

      It does depend what causes it in the first place - and there are causes of bags that ARE lifelong. 
    • Twopies
      Twopies EileenH

      Posted

      Oh, well, then...since I never had them before pred, I was assuming that was what caused them,  time will tell, huh?
  • lrrj0704
    lrrj0704 Twopies

    Edited

    Thank you everyone for their answers. I too suffered from puffiness around eyes. i have reduced prednisone to 5mg daily ( which was my normal dose before puffiness) but was wondering if I need to get off it completely for eyes to normal. Is anyone still on prednisone?

    • Twopies
      Twopies lrrj0704

      Posted

      yep. 6 mg now. you know what? puffiness comes and goes which tells me its probably result of other factors, like diet or my horrific allergies. both seem to puff me up. as im having more un-puffy days than puffy, im not paying a lot of attention to it these days. best wishes to you!

    • EileenH
      EileenH lrrj0704

      Posted

      Have you tried cutting your dietary salt intake? That is often a factor in facial puffiness when on pred - cutting carbs in general may also help but cutting processed carbs which also contain a lot of salt is important.

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