It was at least a month. Just because the pain is better doesn't mean the inflammation is under control. The pain lessened right away, but the weakness took a while. It seems like all doctors have you taper at a different rate, I think it's really what you can tolerate. To be honest, you will probably start to taper and then feel awful again and have to go back up a few mg's. I could not seem to get below 8 mg. I've been doing this for a couple years and now am getting Actemra infusions once a month and tapering off the steroid at the same time. It's kind of like when you have surgery to fix your broken ankle. They can say it's healed, but it will never feel or work the same. I'm hoping the weakness I have can be remedied with strength training. And I'm very tired if I do anything strenuous at all, which was not the case before. So we'll see what happens. I've raged against steroids and tried to go to fast, and it isn't worth it. Yes, you will gain weight, but you need to get your body healed.