@charlena, You will notice we changed your discussion title a little to help let members know what your question is. I'm sorry to hear that your husband is having trouble tapering down. It sounds very much like my first occurrence with PMR which lasted 3 and half years before I could successfully taper off of prednisone. I met with my rheumatologist when I was struggling tapering down and he shared the story of another patient who was at 1 mg for more than a year before being able to taper off. My own experience was going back and forth between 1 mg and 1/2 mg of prednisone the last six months of the 3-1/2 years. I did have to find a good pill splitter and still it was not easy for me to split the pills but it did help me get through.

My second occurrence with PMR six years later went much better because I made some changes to my lifestyle -- exercised a little more and stopped eating processed food while trying to eliminating as much sugar as possible. I think what makes diagnosis hard sometimes is that there are a lot of conditions that mimic PMR. I think if I lost confidence in my rheumatologist I would probably try and get a second opinion.

Diseases that mimic polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR): https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/diseases-that-mimic-polymyalgia-rheumatica

Has your husband tried to make any lifestyle type changes to see if they may help?