I think the first time in 2007 I started at 20mg for two weeks and then down to 15 for two weeks. After that I started tapering down by 2.5 every two weeks until I started having too much pain and I slowed the taper to 1 mg every two weeks or a month if I was struggling with pain. It took 3-1/2 years to taper completely off my first time. Then 6 years after that the PMR returned but I had made some lifestyle changes with more exercise and eating healthier with less sugar and inflammatory foods and was able to taper off in 1-1/2 years.

What helped me was keeping a daily pain and dosage log. If my pain was more than a 2 on my scale, I didn't taper and would sometimes bump my dose up for a week by half of what it was the previous time so I wasn't going all the way back to the previous dose and would still be down a little in dosage.