My experience was similar to yours. I self-medicated with acetaminophen to treat PMR and later PMR and GCA. I got a little relief, but not much. When I went to the emergency room for vision problems for GCA, I got 3 daily infusions of 1000 mg of methyl-prednisolone. I recovered immediately starting with the first infusion.I was also bouncing off the walls from the extremely high dose of steroids. And for two weeks afterward I had a hunger like I had never known before. There was no way I could get enough to eat during that time.