Most of us can relate to your dilemma, there's the ideal world according to the treating Doctor and there's the harsh reality that each of us live everyday. Two different worlds in many cases! I am very sensitive to Prednisone and through lots of trial and error discovered that the only way I could reduce the dose and keep functioning was by a quarter of 1mg every week. I also had to split the dose, you'll find a lot of discussion on that and rely on paracetamol as needed. It has taken 14 mths to get to 2.5mg and I'm reducing a lot slower now, still living with pain but getting on with life. For me a gluten free diet and low stress lifestyle are very important