@heretaunga1947 @virginiaj and others, I'm certainly no expert and have no medical training or background but the way my rheumatologist explained it to me is that once you have PMR it never goes away but it can go into remission with treatment of the cause of the symptoms (inflammation) which is what the prednisone treats. Each of us are affected differently and can take longer to taper off of the prednisone and there are things we can do to help reduce the symptoms and keep them at bay when/if the PMR goes into remission.

Here's an older study on the question -- Definition of remission and relapse in polymyalgia rheumatica: data from a literature search compared with a Delphi-based expert consensus: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21097803/

Here's some more information - citation from article below... "Without treatment, polymyalgia rheumatica sometimes goes away on its own over several years. With treatment, symptoms lessen or go away within days. Treatment is generally necessary for at least six months. And it often continues for one to two years or even longer.Apr 18, 2019" -- Polymyalgia Rheumatica - Harvard Health:
https://www.health.harvard.edu/a_to_z/polymyalgia-rheumatica-a-to-z

I've had 2 occurrences of PMR. The first time took me 3-1/2 years to taper off. The second time it took me 1-1/2 years to taper off. I started making lifestyle changes which I'm sure has helped - eat better, exercise more (in the keep moving category 🙂 ).

Hoping for a pain free day for all my cyber friends with their PMR and also that it goes into remission ASAP!