I had those same concerns when I had my flare. Very uncomfortable. Similar pain. OTC stuff was not helping. My Dr appt was 3 months out. I thought that the reason my first PMR occurrence lasted so long was it took 3 months to diagnose. My flare was at about 1 year. I took a 5 day prednisone pack. 20mg - 20mg - 10mg - 5mg - 5mg - stopped. I sort of loaded it up front. My pain was gone the first day. I have not had any issues since.