I'm sorry you're experiencing GCA. I was diagnosed with GCA and PMR almost a year ago. I didn't have any headaches, but I did a lot of fatigue in my jaw muscles when I was eating, tenderness around my ears and on my scalp, night sweats, low grade fever, and temporary loss of vision in one eye. I was hospitalized for 3 days to receive an infusion each day of 1000 mg of methylprednisolone. After I got out of the hospital I started on a dose of 60 mg of prednisone once a day. I was on that dose for 6 weeks. I always took the 3 pills together first thing in the morning. The earlier you take the pills the better. The best time is around 4 am, because that's when the inflammatory substances in the body are at the highest point.

You should take the prednisone with food. The prednisone can irritate your stomach. A lot of people, including me, have to take a proton pump inhibitor to control acid and stomach irritation.

You should schedule an appointment with a rheumatologist if possible. The rheumatologist can manage the prescriptions you need for GCA and monitor your progress with blood tests. You could request a prescription for Actemra, which is a biologic drug that allows you to taper off of prednisone faster and avoid some of the issues with long term prednisone use.

You should also see an ophthalmologist regularly to monitor for problems from the GCA and prednisone.

I had a lot of trouble with insomnia when my prednisone dose was above 40 mg a day. It was especially bad at the highest doses, like 60 mg a day. During that time it helped me to take 5 mg of time release Melatonin before bedtime. That helped me to sleep 5 hours night. I felt pretty bad from the insomnia, but it was just something I had to go through to recover from the GCA.

Sorry again for your illness, and good luck!