I would dearly love to hear what your second opinion doctor has to say about this subject. I keep reading here on this site, and what I"m coming up with, is everyone is being told something different by their doctors. It seems it's basically up to us what we're prepared to deal with. The only thing everyone seems to agree with is, the less prednisone, the better! But some of us are taking less and dealing with some pain. Others it seems aren't having any pain, and my question is, are they taking the least they can be taking? And how much pain is too much? Because I'm having pain, and still my doctor is urging me to taper down to the next from 7 to 6 mg. Very confusing!!