No meant unable. Not preaching here but only explaining. Generally after about 2 weeks your body stops making cortisol. Cortisol is being supplied by the prednisone. When your body stops making cortisol you can no longer function without the prednisone. Dr's attempt to taper you off the prednisone to allow your body time to restart. The longer you are on steroids and the amount you are taking can be big factors in how long this takes. PMR unfortunately can take 6 months to years to burn out. Some may not ever restart their cortisol and need to take steroids for the rest of their life. So my comment was in short amount of time( 2-3weeks) you will no longer be able to just stop taking prednisone. The longer you take them the harder it gets to stop.