I sympathize with you!

I was diagnosed with PMR and took prednisone for 13 years before I was able to taper off. There were other things going on but I wasn't completely aware of those other things if I took an adequate dose of prednisone to control the pain.

Therein lies the problem with long term treatment with prednisone for PMR. Prednisone hides the symptoms of so many other problems until your prednisone dose is decreased. Even GCA is difficult to diagnose after prednisone is started.

After prednisone is taken for an extended period of time, you run the risk of adrenal insufficiency and that leads to more problems. Then you can't taper off prednisone easily until your adrenals begin to recover.

I think prednisone is good for PMR if it is taken "short term" but "long term" prednisone use did a number on me. Most medical professionals realize there are serious side effects to long term prednisone use. That is why they want you off prednisone as soon as possible.

Except for relieving all the pain, prednisone was very hard on my body. I am grateful for prednisone because it made the pain more tolerable. Prednisone gave me fast pain relief and that meant the most to me.

I don't know the solution to this Catch-22. My rheumatologist tried so many things to get me off prednisone but nothing else worked as well as prednisone to control the pain. Finally something else did work, and I was able to get off prednisone about 3 years ago. Now I'm dealing with all the degenerative disc disease, arthritis and metabolic problems.

I wish you luck with the Celebrex. As NSAIDs go, my rheumatologist thought Celebrex would be the least likely to cause GI problems while I was still taking prednisone. That was the common belief at the time. I don't know what caused the pulmonary embolism but when I needed warfarin, my rhematologist didn't think Celebrex was a good idea anymore.

I had some luck with methotrexate until my liver enzymes were too high. During my year of taking methotrexate, I was able to decrease my prednisone dose. After a year, my liver enzymes got too high.

I think leflunomide was the next thing that was tried.

I wish you well. PMR shouldn't be allowed to persist so long. If it does, there needs to be an alternative to prednisone.

P.S.
EMG's aren't much fun.