@rebeccaheard I am now down to 4 mg and have permission from my rheumy to make my own decisions as to when to taper down, 1/2 mg at a time. He said a month at a time is fine with him. When I am getting ready to taper down I begin to alternate the old dose with the new dose so as to ease my system into the new adjustment. Thus far what I have found is that I have what I call a general feeling of broken glass in my arms and legs for the next 3 to 4 days once I am on the new lower dose, and then it settles down and I pretty much have some peace and quiet for some weeks till I begin the next 1/2 mg. Now and then I do have traveling pain, that is, sometimes the back of my hands, my toes, my shoulders, my hips. Here and there and random. I understand this is typical. I feel at my best when I've had enough sleep and that also means a half hour nap after lunch as well. When I have a rugged night's sleep everything feels awful. I try and stay off Tylenol as best as I can. I find the best thing for me, is to have my programmable coffee pot make me coffee by the time I wake up and I sit in bed and have a good, hot, strong cup of French Roast before I get up. Somehow this really really helps with the early morning creakiness. Then I can get up and start breakfast OK. The pounding in my ears comes and goes and it's only at night when I put my head down. I just had a checkup from the Dr. and my heart is fine so I presume this must be either the prednisone or the fact that I am 83 and the ole ears are going on me, perish the thought. I hope you will be feeling better soon, you have my sympathies.