New Member
I am a 70 yr. old male, I was diagnosed with PMR in Feb. 2021 and started 20 mg prednisone for about 5 weeks and on March 10th my Rheumy dropped me to 15 mg. He has me take my dose at bedtime (about 10:30 pm for me) to help with morning pain. When i was on 20 my pain was low perhaps a 1-2 on a 10 scale and mostly in my hands/shoulders/pelvis. After a few days on the 15 mg my pain began to get worse by the day in the evenings. I would say went a 4 level in my knees, shoulders and pelvis along with my hands. Doc put me back to 17.5 and then tapered a bit slower. In July I started taking my daily dose at 7:00 a..m.

Doc has me taking a multivitamin and glucosamine as well as a Calcium/vitamin D3 supplement. I bought some Mag glycinate for the cramps and it seemed to help.

Today I am down to 5mg and I still have some early morning pain and pain when I stand after sitting for a bit. Pain in my hands is gone and shoulder pain is reduced, but I still have pain in the pelvic/hip area especially bad (level 7-8) if I try to stoop down low. Pain is in the 2-4 range typically and occasionally I take arthritis strength tylenol. Pain gets a little worse at the beginning of a new lower dose.

My experience with the prednisone is that it starts helping a lot about 2 hours after I take the dose and I feel pretty good for about 12 hours and then it seems to wear off slowly for 3-4 hours. Pain slightly elevated at bedtime.

Most days I walk 2-3 miles. i can tell I don't have the same energy level I had prior to PMR. My brain is frequently a bit foggy, not sure if age or PMR related. Anyway that is my story so far in this journey.

Good luck to you all in tapering ,and finding remission.

I find this forum very helpful!
Thanks,
John