Weaning off Prednisone

@susanew, My first time with PMR it took 3 and half years to taper off of prednisone. I started at 20 mg and the last six months I spent going back and forth between 1 mg and 1/2 mg until I could finally stop taking it and my level of pain was acceptable in the morning when I woke up. Acceptable for me was anything below a 1 or 2 that would go away once I was up and moving around. You might want to scan through the 70+ discussions and 1700+ comments on the tapering off of prednisone while you wait for others to respond - https://connect.mayoclinic.org/search/discussions/?search=Tapering%20off%20of%20Prednisone.

If you are in this chat room for long you will find the Search feature to be a treasure. The way you get to the Search page is to go to the Support Group home page and you will see a Search field underneath the PMR heading . If you go top of home pages you will see a Search field at the top of the page next to the Mayo Clinic logo that searches all chat rooms.
Here's a link to the PMR Support Group home page -
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/group/polymyalgia-rheumatica-pmr/?utm_source=connect.mayoclinic.org&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=digest&utm_content=summary_interest
Alternate words you could search for Tapering are Weaning and Titrating.
By Searching you can often get a good discussion that addresses your thought as well as better understand how to frame your questions when you do post.

I am responding regarding alternate treatments besides Prednisone. Fortunately, I have a doctor who leans on the holistic side and gave me a choice to go to rheumatologist or try a certified doctor within the health system who prescribes medical marijuana. I have been taking 1/2 gummie (containing 5 mg of thc, 2 1/2 mg of cbn, & 2 1/2 mg of CBG) (no CBD!) These I started almost 3 years ago after contracting PMR right after a Covid booster. Until lately, I was sleeping better and not having the severe stiffness and pain. Lately, it seemed the benefits from the gummie were wearing off so I started with a new nightly routine before bedtime. I eat 2 TBLSP of pumpkin seeds, an extended release 4 mg melatonin (nature made), a Gaia extra strength turmeric pill and a 400 mg magnesium tablet plus 1/2 the gummie. I will share that I am totally blown away by the results. Not only have I slept through the night but also have woken with very little pain. Evidently, the pumpkin seeds have tryptophan that enhance the melatonin plus they are anti inflammatory. I only do this before bedtime because prior to this experiment, I was getting very little sleep and also suffered a lot of hip and shoulder pain while in bed. Just thought I should share this!
Teresa

This sounds great except some U.S. states do not allow the use of medical marijuana. Glad you found a more natural way to deal with PMR.