Hello @barbararene, my first episode of PMR took almost 3 years to get off prednisone. I started with the 20 mg and started tapering after a few months. The hardest for me was the last year where for about 6 months I was going back and forth between 1 mg and 1/2 mg dosage. I would go back to the higher dosage if the pain was a little too much (probably a 4 or 5 on a scale of 10). When I finally was able to stop taking the prednisone I think I still was feeling a little pain, maybe a 1 or 2 on a scale of 10 but it's pretty subjective since I'm sure it's different for each person.

This second bout of PMR I also started at 20 mg but within a month I started tapering the dosage sometime around last April. I'm now at 7.5 mg. I met with my primary care doctor yesterday and she wants me to stay on a dosage for a month - I had been trying to go down by 1 or 1/2 each week (I'm impatient) so I'm hoping it may work better descreasing the dosage every month. I've tried tapering every 3 days, every week and now every month. I'm playing it a little loose since I think if I can tolerate a little pain I may be able to get off prednisone sooner. Not a suggestion for anyone else but I think it worked OK for me with my first episode of PMR.

Just keep taking those steps!

John