The goal of steroids (specifically, Prednisone) for Polymyalgia is to cut the pain, and then for you to be weaned off slow enough that the pain and swelling stays away. In my case, I could not continue on the Prednisone, it caused so much weight gain and then uncontrollable glaucoma also, it became too much too risky. But that took some time to find out. So, I had to go off it without a new plan. Also, without a Rheumatologist. The other's here appear to have Rheumatologists. In the end, I ended up finding out what was triggering it. That turned out to be an allergy to cold. I lived in Alaska, but wasn't born there. Perhaps, if you can possibly find out what triggered it, you might be able to eliminate that, instead.