Hi @cindyjane and @richardab, PMR and GCA are autoimmune disorders with genetic markers that afflict, most often, those over 50. People with Northern European ancestry, especially Scandanavians, have highest rates of it, and the incidence in the population is about 50 in 200,000 (Cecil and Goldman's Textbook of Medicine). My maternal aunt had it. Our background is largely Southern European, but who knows what our ancestors were up to years ago? My mother in law, predominantly English ancestry, also had Giant Cell Arteritis. With autoimmune diseases, an injury or illness triggers the immune system to go into overdrive and attack other parts of the body. For me, it was an ankle injury, for my aunt, a back injury, and my mother-in-law came down with it after an especially long road trip and family reunion (stress, perhaps?). Please don't beat yourself up over this. Before my diagnosis, I spent a year listening to a podcast about fibromyalgia and tried to love myself more. It didn't help, but prednisone did. I agree with @mary4 who asked you if your prednisone is at a sufficiently high dosage because PMR is usually very responsive to Prednisone. Do you have any headache, tender scalp, difficulties seeing? Giant Cell Arteritis requires a higher dosage of Prednisone. Also, sometimes PMR can be mistaken for an infection, connective tissue disorder, hypothyroidism, or malignancy so if your current dosage of Prednisone isn't really working for you, best to let your doctor know. I hope you see a good Rheumatologist. I was able to get down from 40 mg Prednisone to 0 in a year and a half, with no flareups so far. FYI, everything I've read states not to mix NSAIDs with prednisone. I was told to take tylenol or acetaminophen, two 325 mg pills for pain. I wish you the best.