I think most of us would describe ourselves as pretty non-functional with pain when we first got PMR. I couldn't sleep for more than an hour or so with a total night's broken sleep of 4-5hrs, woken continually with pain and unable to turn over in bed. A week of prescribed non steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) didn't help and inflammation markers were elevated so in desperation I started on 15mg prednisolone, two months after PMR struck. By then, some days I couldn't even lower myself onto the toilet. There was good improvement after a week or so on pred. We're all different and so are our doctors, but I'm still wondering why your dose is so high, considering the short and long-term side effects of the drug. I'm not pushing to get an answer you don't have, just surprised.