Hi Joyce,

First off, I just realized you are taking the prednisone for a sinus infection so you can ignore the rest of this but to put your mind at ease,  a short burst of prednisone is not harmful and works really well to control inflammation.  Depending on the length of time you will be on the prednisone wt gain generally only happens when taking prednisone over an extended period of time.  A couple of weeks should not affect your wt.  It does increase your appetite so use caution if that is a concern.  I am on 30mg of prednisone and there seems to be some concern that I shouldn't be on such a high dose, there seems to be  a lot of controversy over the use of prednisone at high doses for an extended period of time.  The one thing I would caution is that you ask for a bone scan to determine your bone density.  Prednisone can lead to osteoporosis.  In addition make sure you are getting 1500 mg of Calcium a day as well as Vit D supplements (1000)  I have gained wt but it has been a small price to pay for some pain control.  I am hoping to change my DMARDs this week when I see the Rheumatologist so that I don't have to be on such a high dose.  I hope this info helps, everyone seems to have an opinion about prednisone and it's risks versus it's benefits but you have to determine for yourself whether the risks are worth the benefits.  Prednisone is often given in high doses to control the inflammatory process of the disease until other meds have started to work and then sometimes your prednisone dose can be decreased to  5 or 10 mg for matainance.  Sometimes you can come off of it completely.  Good luck and hope you are feeling better soon.

Michelle