No need to feel disappointed in yourself; sounds like you’re doing great. It’s a very hard thing to listen to your body and to be open to doing what works best for you, even if it may not have been what you really wanted to be doing.

My dad also started having more challenges when he got around the 7.5 mg mark. It’s right about there where he had more frequent instances of having to go up, then down, up again, then down. Sometimes he’d keep same dose for a month or more. It was also around the 7.5 mark that he started tapering by .5 mg each time, so you could consider slowing down the taper and talk with your rheumatologist about it when they get back to you, hopefully soon!