Thank you for your response. I have asked the doctor and she is adamant that he must take the Prednisone dose one time per day for GCA. It's very frustrating. She has put him on Actemra starting now. We just picked it up. How has it been for you? My husband has a cough so I'm worried about giving him the shot until it clears up. She knows he has a cough and still prescribed it. Have you experienced having a virus while being on the shots?

How is the Actemra working for you? Did it help to reduce prednisone? My husband is asking if you had any side effects from the Actemra. Also, he’s on 80 mg right now of the prednisone and we are contemplating having him take 60 mg in the morning and 20 mg in the evening. That’s my recommendation. He would prefer to do 50 mg in the morning and 30 mg in the evening. Yesterday he took 80 mg in the morning before they told us we could split it. He took an additional 20 mg in the evening and did great. He woke up headache free. And in much better spirits. The Chief of Rheumatology said 40/40 or to play with it and find what works so long as it’s 80 mg per 24 hour period.

@bws I wanted to follow up and let you know that we were so frustrated we asked for a second opinion. His rheumatologist's nurse really listened to our concerns about dosing and how 80 mg in the morning wasn't working for him. She called us back after talking with the Chief of Rheumatology who said 80 mg is too high a dose to take all at once and that we should split the dose. We can split it any way we want so long as he takes 80 mg daily. Phew!