My rheumatologist started me on 20 mg when I was diagnosed in August '21. I could feel it working within 6 hours and within 48 hours all symptoms were gone. I had no problem tapering to 10 mg over 9 weeks but after that I have had difficulty. My MD recommended that I drop 1 mg every 3 weeks. At 8 mg I had quite a bit of pain. It was hard to tell if it was years-old pain coming back, prednisone withdrawal symptoms, or the disease returning. I dropped to 7 as scheduled anyway and the pain continued but no worse. I decided to extend the time to 4 weeks, then dropped to 6 and symptoms improved. I can see that this business of tapering is an art rather than a science. I see my MD next month when he would like me to be at 5 mg. I thought of calling him for advice but in the end decided to just listen to my symptoms and do what felt right as long as I am not deviating widely from what he recommends. From what I have read the body generates about 7.5 mg of cortisol naturally, though it cuts back when the prednisone replaces it. So it seems logical to have problems decreasing the prednisone below that level, when the body has to start producing cortisol again.