Hello Alan (@alanbruce) - Welcome to Mayo Connect. We are happy you found us. Connect is a great place to ask questions you have about your health concern and find out what other Connect members with similar health concerns are doing for treatments. I am 74 and also have PMR. My first occurrence of PMR came about in 2007 and just like you the pain was extreme and I needed a walker to get around. My rheumatologist at the Rochester Mayo Clinic put me on 20 mg of prednisone and within a few hours of taking the first pill I had relief and no longer needed the walker to get around. I was not able to taper off of prednisone until 2010. The last year I was going between 1 mg and 1/2 mg until I was finally able to stop taking it without some pain. The PMR went into remission for 6 years and I was started back on 20 mg of prednisone. I'm now at 5 mg but struggling a little. The main side affect I have had is weight gain the first time around and a little weight gain this time around but I've learned that I have to really change my lifestyle when it comes to eating.

I just got my prescription refilled for 2.5 mg pills and was reviewing the pharmacy side affects notes that came with it. I've read them before but it is a long list and kind of scary...sort of like listening to the TV commercials on Lyrica when they list every thing that it can do to you as fast as they can at the end of the commercial after showing you the friendly message up front. PMR is definitely not what any of us would choose. I do think the a better diet can help improve the overall health of people with PMR. Here's a site that talks a little bit about diet and lifestyle for people with PMR:
http://www.pmrgca.co.uk/content/nutrition
I started looking into changing my eating lifestyle after reading a Dr. Terry Wahls story about how she was able to significantly reduce her MS symptoms through modifying her diet. You can find her story here: http://terrywahls.com/about/about-terry-wahls/. I tried gluten free, dairy free and limited red meat for awhile but now I'm just trying to keep the sugar intake at a minimum and increase the green veggies and fruit by having a green smoothie for breakfast 4 to 5 days a week. Normally it's just a 1/4 blueberries, a couple of strawberries, cup of greens (spinach, kale, chard, etc.), with about 4 oz of coconut water and 4 to 6 oz of water blended with a few ice cubes. Didn't like it much when I started but it's gotten better.

Mayo Clinic has some good information on how to balance the risks of long term use of prednisone and similar drugs here:
http://www.mayoclinic.org/steroids/art-20045692?pg=2
Hoping your PMR goes into remission ASAP.

John