I am also at the same point. I had started at 20 mg of prednisone and was self tapering at the urging of my primary who seemed absolutely paranoid about prednisone. I was going down 1 mg a week until I hit 14 mg and then tried to swim which caused my shoulders to howl and bark and forced me back up to 18 mg; so a waste of 6 weeks of hard work. Then I finally had an appointment with a good rheumy who knows her stuff. She assured me that 20 mg was fine, added methotrexate and told me that the labs would dictate when I taper. Two weeks at 20 with the MTX and I feel great. The point of all of this is to let the science (SED and CRP) control the tapering; not some artificial and arbitrary schedule where "one size fits all". Good luck and lets compare notes as we continue this journey!

No, no issues with insurance and all I have is a Medicare advantage HMO which I have learned is the worst kind of Medicare policy to have. What do you have? I am looking into buying a Medicare supplement plan when my plan year ends even though it will cost $300 a month more than the Medicare advantage plan. What is your current prednisone dose? My rheumatologist prescribed the injectable methotrexate which I can do myself once a week. The injectable has much fewer side effects.

Hello @wayneo and welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. I am glad you are being proactive in reaching out to learn from others as you start down this journey.

You will notice that I have moved your post into an existing discussion on PMR and Methotrexate. Member @jcaffrey47 has already responded, which is great!

When were you diagnosed with PMR?