Welcome @jiffaw, PMR can definitely turn your life upside down even if you are not an active person. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle with anti-inflammatory foods and exercise definitely help as long as you don't overdo the exercise part. I was started at 20 mg prednisone for both my occurrences of PMR and it pretty much took care of all of my pain within a few hours until the next morning's dose. I also have carpal tunnel that hasn't gotten a lot better over the years but it's not bad enough to consider surgery. I have had a cortizone shot a few years ago which helped.

Have you discussed the possibility of the carpal tunnel being a separate issue from the PMR with your doctor or rheumatologist? Or maybe even bumping up the initial dose of prednisone since the average starting dose is 15 to 25 mg prednisone and we are all different.