@vellen I'm guessing 2 weeks was too soon to taper down. I've had 2 occurrences of PMR and I was started on 20 mg prednisone for both. The normal starting dose is 12.5 to 25 but sometimes higher depending on how well your pain is controlled with the starting dose. You might want to share this reference with your doctors assistant.

--- 2015 Recommendations for the management of polymyalgia rheumatica: a European League Against Rheumatism/American College of Rheumatology collaborative initiative:
https://ard.bmj.com/content/74/10/1799

I worked with my rheumatologist on the tapering. He had me keep a daily log with my level of pain on a scale of 1 to 10 when I first woke up in the morning along with my dose of prednisone for the day. I took 3-1/2 years to taper off the first time and 1-1/2 years the second time with PMR.

If the 15 mg starting dose got rid of all of the pain for you but the pain came back after 3 days at 12.5, it sounds like the taper was too much too fast. Everyone is different so it can be a challenge tapering. I think I would ask my doctor for a prescription for 1 mg and 2.5 mg prednisone tablets so that you can taper by smaller amounts when it's time to taper. Then if your pain goes up after dropping from 15 to 12.5, instead of going back to the previous dose, my rheumatologist had me bump up about half of the previous taper to see if the pain is controlled. So, for example, I would just go back to 13.5 and if my pain was gone the next morning I would stay at that level for a couple of weeks at a minimum until I tried another taper. I think that is why it's so important to keep a daily log and work with your doctor or rheumatologist.

Do you keep a daily log of your pain level and prednisone dosage?