Definitely call the doctor. Sitting with PMR pain for too long, especially if it's getting worse can make the inflammation settle into a flare, and that probably means a bigger increase will be needed.

Reducing too fast then having to raise it quite high to resolve a flare results in a bigger cumulative dose than going a bit slower does. Your husband was on a very fast reduction, though maybe there was some medical reason for that. I'm surprised he made it down to 2mg before pain started.

I was told to avoid Advil, ibuprofen and aspirin (NSAIDs) while on Prednisone because it increases risk of stomach ulceration and bleeding. Tylenol is okay.

Regarding your primary question: After 10mg, I was reducing by .5mg every 10 days. (Rheumatolist instructions were to attempt to reduce by 1-2mg per month.) This kept the rate of decrease at less than 10%. After 5mg, I continued to decrease by .5mg but started to feel discomfort in my left arm. After a few days at 4mg, the pain increased to the point that I decided to back up. Took one 5mg prednisone, then the next day began tapering at a rate of .25mg every 10 days starting with 4.75mg - again, reduction kept at less than 10%. Pain gone. When there is no discomfort from a taper, I'll shave off a few days now and then, a week rather than 10 days. I've become accomplished with the pill cutter.

@joycj
Our doctor said not to take Advil for pain, only Tylenol, because of the potential for stomach bleeding (there was something else that I don't remember, but she definitely said no more Advil or anything like Advil.)

We charted and that was one of the best things we did. I made a chart for the doctor that she found very helpful and that ultimately helped figure things out.

This is not an easy road. Everyone is so different so there's no one way for people to be treated. There's the suggested treatment, and then there's reality. For us, my husband was initially diagnosed with PMR and got that pretty much under control and tapered from 30 to 12.5 mg of prednisone when he started getting new symptoms. Long story short, he developed giant cell arteritis and they had a hard time treating him because he was resistant to typical treatment. He ended up needed IV infusions of very high dose prednisone for three days to calm things down, then they put him on 80 mg daily (splitting the dose 50 mg in the AM and 30 mg in the PM) with Actemra weekly injections - this combo finally worked. We've tapered down to 60 mg and still the Actemra injections.

Good luck with this! I've added a copy of the chart I made for the doctor that helped.