These are questions that I am still trying to answer after 9 months on prednisone. I started on 20 mg and had zero pain or symptoms until I got below 10 mg. Starting at 9 I had some pain throughout the day but not bad so continued my taper, dropping 1 mg every 3 weeks. I thought that this might be old pain that I have had for years coming back or just my body needing to start making cortisol again. By the time I got down to 6 mg I was in some serious pain and ended up having to go back up to 10 mg and start the taper again. This time I am down to 7 mg with a drop of 1 mg every 4 weeks. I hurt when I wake up in morning but feel pretty good when the prednisone kicks in after a couple of hours. If pain gets any worse than this I will call my rheumatologist and ask to either stop the taper or increase the dose again. My conclusion is that I should not ignore pain that the prednisone cannot control, ie lasts all day. A retired MD I know advised me not to ignore pain and other sx's of PMR because I'll just have a flare-up. I think he is right.