PMR symptoms are gone. Sharing what worked for me .

Hi @murphy2370, It's good to hear that your PMR symptoms are gone. You mentioned you haven't started tapering off of prednisone yet and are afraid the PMR symptoms will return. You might find the following discussion helpful when you start tapering down on the prednisone.
-- How to Slowly and Safely Taper Off Prednisone but ... no set rules.
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/how-to-slowly-and-safely-taper-off-prednisone-but-no-set-rules/

You are off to a good start. The tapering may take 6months to a year if things go well. Patience and exercise, and enjoy your best life.

I have seen so many things that seem to work for one person and not so effective for another. The facebook page I belonged to was mostly keto advocates until they spun off their own group. I believe diet is important. I believe that exercise helped me. Reducing stress helps. I went 3 months without a diagnosis. Then started 20mg of corticosteroids. My wife was on dexamethasone for cancer. I understood the issues with steroids. I went from 20mg to 10mg in the first 2 weeks. 5 months at 10mg and then was able to taper to zero during the last month. Approximately 5 months at 20mg prednisone is a rather long time without a taper. The idea should be to try and find the lowest possible dose. You stay at that dose until you stabilize and then keep trying to reduce. I am sure your April appointment will have this discussion. John has provided some good information.

I agree with you regarding how to taper off prednisone. I had a mild case (only hurt in bed), so it was hard to diagnose. I started at 10 mg. and tried tapering off by 1 mg. every 2 weeks. I found that a .5 mg. taper was more effective and I think sometimes there were 3 to 4 weeks between tapers. I think it was about a year before I was off of it. It did flare when I got COVID, but I only needed 2 mg. and was soon off of it again.

Being diagnosed with PMR and GCA in August 2024 was a devastating event but not entirely surprising.
I was the author of my own misery.
A sedentary lifestyle with a diet that often included processed food , along with a family history
of autoimmune disorders, the diagnosis though devastating was deserved.
My daughter, a family medicine doc was constantly on my case about the dangers of processed food
and alcohol consumption.
In my case a glass of wine a couple times a week. ( miss that the most!)
Fortunately working with a wonderful Rheumatologist, and a prednisone tapering regimen combined with Actemra 162 mg every 3 weeks, I am now just about finished with Prednisone and pretty much symptomless.

But,and a big but.
I cannot stress enough how diet has played a key role in reducing PMR symptoms.
Have been very faithful to an anti-inflammatory diet along with a regular exercise routine, but a few days ago I broke with the diet and had some cookies, processed but great tasting and some really rich chocolate cake with processed whipped cream.(dream whip ?)
Man oh man, was that cake and the far too many cookies so good after months of being careful,avoiding such incredibly tasty foods.
However the PMR symptoms came roaring back!
Call me a anti-inflammatory zealot .
I cannot place the blame anywhere else as to the reoccurrence of PMR symptoms other than my foolishness on deviating from the anti-inflammatory diet.
With exercise and getting "religious" on the diet once again, the PMR symptoms are starting to abate with no increase in medications.
This is all completely anecdotal, but I will stick with what works until it doesn't.
Cheers