"I'll get them every 4 weeks. I'm down to 11 mg. a day. I already feel better. More energy and not the general feeling of malaise. I am hopeful that it will help me taper to 0 mg. I was very active before PMR. I'm getting my life back."
----------------------
If Actemra works for you ... it actually stops the inflammation. Prednisone doesn't do that very well. Prednisone only reduces the inflammation for less than a day and then you need another dose.

I can go an entire month from one Actemra infusion to the next infusion with no discernable increase in inflammation. I have gone 7 weeks between infusions and my inflammation markers were still negligible but they did increase slightly again.

Those prednisone side effects aren't that easy to manage. I took care of patients on long term corticosteroids and they had a lot of problems. They were frequently hospitalized with broken bones and infections.

I once needed surgery for a problem unrelated to my autoimmune conditions. The surgeon told me I was a poor surgical risk because of my long term Prednisone use. I still haven't done that surgery.

An orthopedic surgeon reluctantly agreed to do knee replacement surgery. I couldn't believe all the extra precautions that were needed. I had an endocrinologist assigned to me "just in case." I didn't know who she was but she stopped in to see how I was doing every hour for about 5 hours after my knee replacement surgery. I didn't figure out why she was visiting with me so often until she said it would be okay to discontinue my infusion of hydrocortisone after her last visit. There was an entourage of medical residents and medical students with the endocrinologist. They were being educated by the endocrinologist. I think they were disappointed because I didn't have an adrenal crisis.