Jeri

Hello!
Yes, steroids cause a weird bunch of things while it eases our inflammatory processes. It affects water retention and the metabolization of carbohydrates. You will go down after you stop- but it takes a while. At work one of our coworkers had cancer and wa put on real high doses and she blew up by 40 @ almost immediately. It was so hard for her cause people didn't recognize her.
Another coworker was put on high does and then low maintenance dose for RA- her doctor gave her the best advice:avoid all 'white" as in bread refined sugar, etc. I am definately NOT a health food or weird diet person. Since I was diagnosed with diabetes 2 at the same time as the Lupus, I took that as a challenge. So far I managed to lose a little with strict diet control- but I can also see that whenever she upped the prednisone I would start retaining fluid in my legs and ankles. She told me that was a side effect of the pred. It scares me sufficiently to watch the sugars and starches closer. I'm on 20mg/day now and aiming to reduce theat dose as the methotrexate kicks in in the next few weeks.
It's a real low blow to handle as you have enough to deal with the disease.
Try giving it a different spin- tell them yes when asked if you're PG. then tell them its a lab experiment and you're naming it "steroids" or "lupus" or whatever will get the message across .
Hang in there- you're an old hat at this stuff already and you're so young! I can learn a lot from YOU- and I'm 57!
jeri