@suebep, I was more worried about the moon face and weight gain but I did end up having a sleep study done after mentioning that my wife says I snore pretty bad to a cardiologist during a checkup for some swelling in my legs. He setup a sleep study for me and then I was diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea and now use a CPAP. I never thought I had issues sleeping but it can affect the quality of sleep. I also had a bone density scan and was diagnosed with osteopenia. My primary wanted me to go on 1200 mg Calcium daily but it cause terrible constipation for me so I decided to try and get the calcium through diet. I haven't had another bone density scan yet but it's something I also worry about. I think weight bearing exercise can help with that also and I know I don't do enough of that but I'm trying to do more.

The first time around with PMR, I was on prednisone for 3-1/2 years. Six years after I tapered off, my PMR came back and I was on prednisone for another 1-1/2 years and really think I was able to taper off more quickly because I had made some lifestyle and diet changes. Hardest for me was giving up fast foods, soft drinks and refined sugar. I am still working on the sugar part but it is getting easier every day 🙂

The prednisone really will give you your life back and then you just need to taper off as quickly as your body allows. Two things really helped my tapering process -- a daily pain/dosage log and having my rheumatologist prescribe different dosage prednisone tablets so that I could taper at lower doses without having to split pills. I used the 1, 2.5 and 5 mg tablets. Then the last six months of the first episode of PMR I had to split my 1 mg tablets in half and I went back and forth between 1 mg and 1/2 mg every few weeks until I was able to taper off.