Hi Cynthia @juju1, Welcome to Connect. You are not alone with not wishing PMR on anyone. You mentioned being diagnosed Sept 2022 and having pain coming back when you reduce to 6 mg prednisone. Depending on your starting dose, it may be that you are tapering too fast. I started at 20 mg prednisone and the first time it took me 3 and half years to taper off. The last 6 months going back and forth between 1 mg and 1/2 mg until I could finally stop taking prednisone and not have any pain in the morning. There is another discussion you might find helpful.

--- PMR Dosages and Managing Symptoms: https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/pmr-dosages/.

Do you keep a daily log with your level of pain when you wake up and the dosage of prednisone for that day?

Hello Cynthia! I'm sorry to read that your pain keeps coming back. I only recently was diagnosed with PMR about a month ago. Doctor started me on 20 mg/day for 1 week, then lowered to 15 mg/day for the next week. Pain came back even before I lowered to 15 mg, but I proceeded anyway, only to have the pain worsen to its highest levels (needed help out of bed). Doctor increased me to 20 mg in morning, 10 mg at night about 2 weeks ago, and I've felt almost 100% since then, although the prednisone does seem to wear me out a little. So from my very limited experience, my guess is that maybe your doctor tapered you too soon and/or started you with too low of a dosage. I'd advise your doctor of any flare-ups, so that he/she could determine if you should be restarted at a higher dosage.