That's a good link to save. I would agree severe fatigue should be first on the list. It was fatigue that was several magnitudes higher than the fatigue I felt with PMR.

As for body aches and joint pains ... I can only wonder how many times I mistook those pains for a PMR flare. This was especially true when increasing my dose of prednisone relieved the aches and pains. How is anyone supposed to know those pains were a symptom of adrenal insufficiency as opposed to a PMR flare. Maybe if I was aware of these things, I wouldn't have needed prednisone for so long.

It eventually worked out once I realized that inflammation is regulated better with cortisol and the HPA axis. That system should be left in autopilot so we don't need to worry how much Prednisone to take each an every day.

I have decided that I wasn't ever very good at regulating my inflammation with Prednisone. I didn't realize this until Actemra controlled my PMR pain. I had to wing it through the adrenal insufficiency phase of my Prednisone taper. Even my endocrinologist said she didn't know what would happen if I discontinued prednisone after such a long time. It was more about having an adequate cortisol level rather than a PMR flare.

Actemra was doing a great job of preventing a PMR flare as I tapered my Prednisone dose to lower. Maintaining a Prednisone dose of 3 mg for an extended period of time encouraged my adrenals to produce more cortisol. Once my cortisol level was adequate on 3 mg of Prednisone, my endocrinologist said I could discontinue Prednisone without tapering. I tapered off anyway -- going from 3 mg to zero in a couple of days instead of years.

It took nearly a year in total to finally get off Prednisone while talking Actemra instead. It took additional year or two for all the fatique and body ache and pain to feel consistent with the other medical problems I have that explain the pain better. Nobody ever promised me a "pain free life" which was the false promise that taking enough Prednisone would provide.