Prednisone: positives *and* negatives?

I have been trialing prednisone this week under my rheumatologist's care. Thus far I have tried NSAIDs with little positive results in terms of pain relief for arthritis-type pain. We have done what seems like countless blood tests and x-rays.

Most blood tests have come up within normal range, except:
My vitamin D is crazy low, ~7, where the minimal normal is 30, sometimes 50 to a max of 100.

And ANA came out positive, but minimally, as well as... can't remember the other one that came out positive, but again very minimally.

However in terms of symptoms they mostly read like RA and she also has said she is thinking fibromyalgia in addition to whatever else is going on- RA or something else.

But since the NSAIDs aren't really helping and I've been pretty miserable, she wanted to basically do a trial of prednisone to see it it would be helpful and to try to narrow down some of the possibilities.

It's REALLY REALLY helping. Tomorrow will be the fifth day in, and I see her again on Thursday.

I am aware there can potentially be some serious long term side effects with prednisone.

I have taken it before and one of my concerns was anxiety or paranoia or some kind of activating psychiatric effect, but when I have taken it before that has kicked in pretty immediately at lower doses [I'm at the max that we agreed upon- 20mg]

I actually feel ok.
Well, in terms of pain, more than ok. I'm having virtuall no pain in my hands. I actually had a pretty "regular" day today.
It's kind of shocking.

I'm looking for people who have taken it for at least a couple of weeks and have positive and negative things to say about it- so if anyone didn't find it horrible enough that they had to drop it after just a few days, or if they did if there were reasons they might have considered staying on it.

I'm trying to find all kinds of positives and negatives about it.
I know a lot about it from reading about it, but since it's helping SO MUCH, I don't want to be blinded by that. Even though I know of the side effects, the fact that the change in functioning is so drastic for me might just make me not consider them as much as I should.

I hope I'm being clear here. I'm kind of rambling. ha.

Thanks!

A good friend had to take it off and on for months at a time for his Crohn's disease and it caused increased hunger/weight gain and "moon" face for him, acne and other skin conditions were his biggest negatives. I haven't thought about the psychiatric effects it may have had, he tends to be paranoid and argumentative even naturally but it did add depression I think; he was seeing a psychiatrist but had a lot wrong with his life too so I don't know where the line was. I've only taken it a couple times, for 3-5 days at a time for my asthma and don't recall any symptoms at all other than feeling loads better. I don't know if you'll be "allowed" to stay on it full-time/forever, it can seriously mess with organs and stuff so I think usually it is an off and on sort of thing, only using it when it is pretty much life-saving rather than just for pain.

Like Perna I've only taken it for 3-5 days for asthma but I noticed a tendency to become quite, I guess I'd say manic on it. Almost like I was taking speed.

I race around doing 50 million things and not finishing any of them and speaking at a million miles an hour.

Also noticed myself to be quite jittery and agitated. I think that had a lot to do with pent up energy though.

The longest I have been on it is for 2 weeks. The negatives I felt were jittery feelings, always hungry but the positives outweighed the negatives short term.

My one sister was on prednisone longtime. She had the moon face, jitters, and it weakened her heart. She died at 29 and her heart was part of why she died.

I've also taken it for asthma attacks. The effects will depend on the dosage too. At 40-60 mg I could REALLY eat and my blood pressure was higher.