I dont think I could have made it without steroids. Like John says within four hours I had my old self back. I continued to exercise through the pain but no pain after the prednisone. I knew the first tablet that I took that corticosteroids are not your friend. I also did not have other issues. So just take in all the education you can about steroids and adrenal failure and dont let yourself go down that path. It would be easier to never take them but its really the only thing that helps PMR. Its not a cure just helps. Find a minimum dose that works in the first couple of weeks and then within months start to taper. The sooner you can get off the better. At the same time work on diet, stress, exercise, anything to help.

Of course thats assuming you and your Dr decide to go with steroids. I have googled methotrexate in the past and it can take several months to be effective. So maybe relief is just around the corner.

Hi @lgreg, one of the tests for diagnosing PMR is the patient's responsiveness to a trial dosage of prednisone. If the symptoms remain after prednisone, then advice to physicians is to look for other diseases/disorders.
I don't know anything about Methotrexate. I do know that the pain of PMR is the worse I ever experienced, 12 on a scale of 10.
Before I was diagnosed I did find that an infrared heating pad relieved the pain while I was using it.
I hope you can get some relief soon.