Thank you John for the welcome! Also, thank you for sharing with me how you taper down. I have heard of Dupuytrens Contracture from friends and I think surgery corrects that. I feel like my pain is at about a 7 on a scale of 1-10 when I have to take 7mgs, which kind of frustrates me as it so hard to get through the day doing simple tasks that seem to me like it takes forever. Before I got PMR I ran 9 miles 3 times a week and did weight lifting for my arm. Tried to maintain exercise since I have been on Prednisone, but when I got down to 5mgs for 5 days in October, I had a terrible flare up with sciatic pain and could hardly walk. So now I do the elliptical 3 times a week for 35 minutes because everything else I try to do makes my back hurt and the sciatic pain always returns. Want to do so much more, but can't. Much luck with your doctors appt in March and hope your hand problem will get resolved. Thank you again for your response and all your valuable information.