Hi,
For a change, I am not asking for myself, but for a male friend who has literally just been diagnosed with PMR.
He is on day five of taking 15mg Gastro costed Pred, and seeing an improvement in his symptoms.
However yesterday he started to see massive halos around single point lights like street lamps and ceiling spot lights. Very bright and clear. No headaches or jaw claudication.
Do you think this could be a side effect of the Prednisolone?
I really don’t know if it is pred related but halos is something I suffered with whilst I was waiting for my cataracts to be removed
Think he need to see an optometrist -there are a variety of reasons why halos appear - high doses of Pred being one [but most sites don’t specify ‘high dose’]
This from Specsavers -
specsavers.co.uk/eye-health...
This re Pred-
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl....
Thank you. Just seems weird that it coincided with taking Pred.
I believe his wife has now taken him to A&E.
at least he’ll get checked out properly there.
Might be Pred, might just be coincidence -but best to get it checked. Please let us know outcome.
Will do. 😊
I agree with DL - he needs it to be checked out. There are no real "typical" GCA visual symptoms so anything visual in someone with a PMR diagnosis needs to be taken seriously.
He’s on his way to A&E now. Best solution.
😊
Hope they take it seriously.
Me too. No updates yet.
Whilst Pred does affect the eyes in that the eye muscles can become less able to focus, which reduces with dose, I don’t remember that happening this early on. Halos weren’t exactly how it would describe it either. Also, Pred causes cataract formation but again he’s only 5 days in. The worry is that it is something else that needs swift attention, not least GCA. It may be a harmless thing but better safe than sorry in these circumstances so you could see if 111 can direct you. Otherwise it’s a trip to A&E.
Thanks Snazzy. He’s on his way to A&E.
I will report back hopefully as it might be something that can help others. 😊
Hi Songbird69. I too suffer with halo's around bright lights. In fact I can't see the moon very well now because of it. The same with car brake lights. However although I think Pred has made it worse it started after having eye lens replacements. The replacements meant I could dispense with the 3 types of glasses I used but it did cause the halo's but as I said it is worse since I've been on Pred.
This is what happened when Pred caused cataracts to form in my eyes and isn’t unusual. Have you had it checked recently? The odd thing about Songbird69’s friend is that it has happened after only 5 days on Pred.
Yes - I had been thinking that but the 5 days of pred threw me.
Well, just heard from him. They couldn’t find anything they might be causing it and said it was not the steroids.
He has been instructed to keep an eye (pardon the pun) on it. He explained to me that these halos are rainbow coloured and worse at night.
I did ask if it was in one or both eyes and he said he didn’t know.
He’s off to the ophthalmologist next week, so I will report back if anything is found.
Not very satisfactory for him.
Sometimes I do worry about the sweeping "it is" or "it is not the steroids", Apply as suits you ...
I know - I so often just want to say keep an eye on it!
I’m finding more and more with my own complicated health issues, that I have to take control. Still getting nowhere fast.
The NHS ain’t what it used to be. 😥
It ain't. Surprised it is still there at all to be honest.
I can’t help thinking this is Pred related.
I'm of the opinion that you have to consider something happening within a week of starting a medication could well have something to do with it!!!!! Until PROVEN otherwise ...
Absolutely! 💯
I think I read sometime back the halos can be caused by raised eye pressure which untreated can badly affect the eyes. When I was on a higher dose of Prednisolone my eye pressures increased, but reversed when I managed to get to lower dose. As others have said, get an appointment with an optician.
Almost 12 months ago I began seeing a circular bright light in my left eye … optician referred me to my GP, and since I had pain in temple area and above the affected eye I was referred straight away to the hospital eye clinic, and was seen the same day. The diagnosis was not GCA but detachment of the vitreous from the retina. It eventually detached and the ocular anomaly disappeared on its own accord.
Yes, you are right - it can be increased pressure. They did check those for him apparently and his pressures were OK.
Hopefully his opticians can rule out anything else nasty.
I as well have halos and my neurologist and eye docs both say it's Migraines without pain
That’s interesting. Is this constant for you?
no it isn't. usually brought on by some sudden bright light shining in my eyes
About a year after starting steroids I started having trouble with blurry eyes, went to the optician and found my eye pressure had doubled. The hospital sent me an appointment for the eye clinic but within a few days I was seeing rainbows around lights, when I contacted the hospital they asked could I come in at 6 p.m. the same day and did tests for glaucoma etc. had the first cataract off 2 months later and the coloured lights around street lights etc disappeared from that eye, and the other eye didn't lose the lights till 2 months later after the next cataract op. I have been on drops for glaucoma just incase so am now having a break to see if my pressure increases again before the final all clear. So I blamed the steroids for my eye pressure increase and the cataracts for the lights but having said that I had seen what looked like crystals around one eye in the lead up to being diagnosed with GCA/PMR. And it was on the side of my face the GCA effected the worst. So that confuses things as no steroids then. But I would have had the eye pressure.
Hi Blue,
Thank you for taking the trouble to reply. Your symptoms are the closest to his, but his eye pressures are normal. He does have the beginnings of a cataract, which hasn’t troubled him previously, so maybe the Pred tweaked things somehow, and caused the rainbow halos. Hopefully his ophthalmologist will be able to get to the bottom of things, as it must be disconcerting for this to happen.
Seeing the light at the end of PMR tunnel 😊
Always look on the Bright Side.
Light weight training and PMR
A Little light Reading 
