Hi Jill @jth4d, I would like to add my welcome to Connect along with the other members of this discussion. As @maija said, yours is indeed a familiar story. When I was diagnosed I also had swelling in my right knee and fluid was drained and I received a steroid shot. I've had 2 occurrences of PMR. The first time it took me a little over 3 years to taper off of prednisone. The second occurence 6 years later, it took me 1-1/2 years to taper off of prednisone. I lived with a minor amount of aches and pains at each taper point but kept going unless the pain was really bad. It might help to keep a tapering off log and write down the dosage and the pain level so that you have something to compare with each time you drop the dosage. I started tapering by 1/2 mg when it got difficult and that seemed to help me.

Good for you on the diet, I think diet plays a big part. Also, one of the bad side effects for me of the prednisone was weight gain. Staying active helps. You mentioned going back from 17.5 mg to 20 mg and are now feeling good again. You might want to see if you can get some 1 mg tablets which I found quite helpful when tapering down. Then if you are really hurting when you drop to 17.5 bump it up by 1 mg to see if the pain goes away instead of all the way back to 20 mg. My rheumatologist was really helpful for me with tapering suggestions. Has your doctor given you any tapering suggestions?