Hi @fillis, Welcome to Connect, an online community where patients and caregivers share their experiences, find support and exchange information with others. I've had 2 occurrences of PMR since I was first diagnosed with the disease back in 2007 at age 64. Mine is currently under remission. I don't think PMR will go into remission if you take 20 mg of prednisone for 2 days and cold turkey stop taking it. Prednisone has to be tapered off of slowly normally on a 1 week at a dose or 2 weeks at a dose, then go to a lower dose. All the while listening to your body and how you feel when you get up in the morning. I worked with my rheumatologist on a tapering schedule that worked for me but he always told me that it's best to adjust the tapering anytime the pain is too much. That was why he had me keep a daily log of my prednisone dosage and how I felt that morning on a scale of 1 to 10. If I only had a few aches that to me would be a 1 or 2 or possibly 3 and it was my day to taper to the next lower dose, I would try it for a couple of days at the new dose to see how I felt. If I felt OK, then I would stay at the lower dose on my way to the next lower dose.

My first occurrence with PMR took 3-1/2 years to taper off. The last six months was going back and forth between 1 mg and 1/2 mg until I was able to stop taking it and not have much aching on a scale of 1 to 10 say a 2. My rheumatologist gave me a prescription for 5 mg, 2.5 mg and 1 mg prednisone tablets which helped with the tapering immensely. You may find the following discussion helpful.

– Tapering off of Prednisone https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/prednisone/

Have you discussed a tapering plan with your rheumatologist?

Also...have you had the c-19 vaccine? In my experience and research, I found that when the PMR is flaring up, it's usually due to the PMR fighting a virus or something else that your immune system should be doing. I was recently flared up and when I got the 1st Moderna shot, the PMR symptoms faded away around 50%. After my second shot most of it is gone...hard to tell if it's more arthritic pain or the PMR now, but mild.