@retiredphil I ended up taking prednisone for a little less than 14 months. After staying at 60 mg per day for 6 weeks, I tapered 5 mg every 2 weeks down to 20. I stayed at 20 for 4 weeks, then dropped 2.5 every 2 weeks down to 10. I stayed at 10 for 4 weeks, then dropped 1 mg every 2 weeks down to 5. Then I dropped 1 mg every 4 weeks down to 0.

My rheumatologist was a little conversative with my taper due to vision issues from the GCA at the time of my diagnosis. My vision turned out ok.

2 weeks after I stopped prednisone I had some minor withdrawal issues for a couple of weeks - fatigue and some depression and irritability.

It took somewhere between 4 and 6 months to feel completely recovered from the prednisone. I think it took that long for my adrenal glands to be fully functional again.

Like my earlier post said, I'm still taking weekly Actemra injections. I hope to go to every other week in about 3 months.