Hello @irishdancer, I would like to add my welcome to Connect along with @karinaph. You will notice that we merged your post with an existing discussion on the same topic. If you click the VIEW & REPLY button at the bottom of the email notification it will take you to the discussion where you can meet other members with similar symptoms and questions and learn what they have shared.

Here's an excerpt from the article below that gives some insight on why PMR can mimic other conditions and be hard to diagnose.
"Feb 28, 2018 - In our medical records (data unpublished), six amongst 265 PMR patients had normal values of both ESR and CRP at diagnosis. The vast majority of these patients had no constitutional manifestations. The reasons why this can be possible in an auto-inflammatory disease are only speculative." -- Polymyalgia rheumatica with normal values of both erythrocyte sedimentation rate and C-reactive protein concentration at the time of diagnosis: a four-point guidance: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5911650/

I think your treatment strategy is reasonable and I would probably discuss a taper schedule with your doctor or rheumatologist. I've tried various tapering off schedules during my 2 occurrences of PMR, usually changing dosage on a weekly basis. The first time took me 3-1/2 years to taper off with the last 6 months going between 1/2 mg and 1 mg until I was finally able to stop taking it with no or relatively no pain.

Do you keep a log of your dosage and a pain scale for the day? I found that to be helpful for both of my occurrences of PMR.