I was told by my doctor that I might gain weight while on prednisone. I personally did not gain weight because I was doing swimming every day for exercise and I also cut down on all sugar.
The disorder did get to my hands. My feet and hands both swelled up. Now I have arthritis in them with limited motion and I cannot make a complete fist.
As far as exercises go my physical therapist gave me some to do, mainly carefully stretching the stiff joints. I do get stiff a lot and am not all that flexible. I get tired out easily and really only ache where I have arthritis.
I had to stay off my feet cause when arches fell. Now I wear arch supports and am actually able to be on my feet more. I even tried running, but I got shinsplints from not running for 4 years. So maybe I'll gradually try running again. Swimming has been a great exercise for me.

Many of you have asked about my disorder. Early summer 2004, I noticed my ankles started swelling and showed my Mom. After praying for healing, we went to our family doctor, who referred us to Mayo Clinic. After 2 ½ long weeks of tons of tests and continued pitted edema spreading past my knees and elbows, they diagnosed me with a very rare disorder called “Eosinophilic fasciitis”. (At the time of my diagnosis, Mayo had only seen six pediatric cases.) After my diagnosis, they put me on prednisone, an anti-inflammatory steroid which served to arrest the disorder. With each of our attempts to wean off that, I had a flare-up. They added another medication, methotrexate, which is often used for cancer patients, and finally Thanksgiving '06 I successfully came off the steroids. I am currently slowly weaning off the methotrexate and hope to be off that by early 2008. I am doing relatively well, though I need to continue to do stretching exercises for range of motion. I have some arthritis in my joints, cannot run any distance and have to stay off my feet as much as possible. Yet through it all, I have learned that God will work even this out for good and that this is an important part of his good plan for my life.