Hi, I'm curious to know if you did a slow taper from 80mg down to 7mg. As I wrote above, I'm on 40mg for PMR because every time I tapered below that I'd get another fully fledged flare. (My symptoms started at the end of May 2022) From what you say, and since you have GCA which is closely related, it sounds to me like you also have PMR. But I'm certainly no expert! If you're having debilitating pain at 7mg, it's worth trying to go up a bit, because you don't want it to turn into a major flare. Good luck, I hope you find relief.

@tillysam I have PMR with normal Sed and CRP. You should not be in awful pain. At what level of prednisone did you last feel good?

Hi @tillysam, From what I've read, the onset of pain with PMR is worse in the morning and recedes later in the day. My pain was terrible most of the day in all the places you mentioned. It lessened somewhat in the evening. I exercised and stretched as much as I could, but nothing helped much. I also became anorexic and got anemia, both symptoms of PMR and GCA. I had PMR first, then GCA. If, on a higher dosage of prednisone your pain is relieved, that's an indicator of PMR, according to medical text books. I had full blown PMR for about four months with only slightly elevated inflammation markers which caused my Primary Care Doctor to miss it. Your case is unusual because you had GCA first, now, most likely have PMR. Usually, the order is reverse. Good luck, I hope you find some relief fast.

Hi, tillysam, You are correct. Your CRP and ESR don't necessarily have to be elevated for you to have PMR. And if the blood work was done after you were on the prednisone, that's probably why. The prednisone gets rid of the inflammation and lowers your numbers. My numbers have been in the normal range from the first month after I was started on pred., eleven months ago. You don't say how quickly you tapered, from 80 mg., but however you did it, it was a long way to go in less than 2 years, to be at 7mg. now. My guess is you probably tapered a little to much and too fast as you got closer to 7mg. If you have pain, it's usually because you're not taking enough prednisone to get rid of the inflammation at this time. You should probably go back to the last amount you were taking before you started feeling the pain. Stay there for a week or two until you're feeling good again. Then start back down very gradually. Maybe half a mg. at a time, every 3 or 4 weeks. Even that could be too fast. Everyone is different. But don't go down if you're feeling any pain. Stay put until you're feeling good. Then try it. This taperin thing takes patience!! Good luck!