Am I going to succeed, or should I start over? w/Dead Slow

Why not go back to 20 for a few days to get that pain under control?  Then try the 2 mg drop.  It's 10% of 20, so it should be okay.  I can't remember, how long have you been at 20?   I know there will be others along with better advice about what to do when at a dose of 20ish.

Withdrawal usually comes on quite quickly and then eases as the body adapts to the lower dose.  Too low a dose of .pred will result in gradually increasing pain.  The pain seems to be the same, it's the timing which helps us distinguish.  So if the initial withdrawal pain doesn't ease but seems to get worse, you are probably dealing with a need for more pred.  But you won't usually know for sure for somewhat more than a week, although like everything else this is very individual. This is why the dead slow method is useful because it helps deal with the withdrawal pain so it's easier to complete a taper to lower dose without suffering more than perhaps some transient niggles. I think some people use the dead slow method even when still at levels like 20, although it becomes more necessary for many of us by around 10 mg. 

And don't be ashamed.  When I had a flare last year and told my doctor I felt I had failed she was very kind and reassured me that it wasn't my fault, I wasn't a failure. 

PMR is what it is.  All we can do is look after ourselves as well as we can, be kind to ourselves and our bodies. . 

DebbieHurts, I was at 8 tapering to 7 when I had my flare, had to go to 30 mg to get relief. My Rheumy and I do not agree on much, but I am still getting my prescriptions. I stay on 30 mg for 6 weeks till I was PMR pain free only then did I start to taper. Tapering using a modified DSNS at 20 mg, now full DSNS. Using an anti-inflammatory diet and turmeric I have been basically since last June. I very active, with a positive attitude and a smile on my face. ☺️

The threat from your doctor is what I would worry about.  That’s like starving a child because they won’t make thei bed.  Ignorance abounds.

" My dr is so anxious for me to reduce that she warned me she wouldn't prescribe pred anymore if I didn't reduce it."

Change your doctor - because she cannot and MUST not simply cut your pred suddenly like that as it could make you seriously ill, especially if you say have been at a high dose for a long time. And threatening a patient like that is appalling. I would be making a complaint. 

If the pain is increasing it is more likely that you have got too to low a dose for your disease activity. Withdrawal pain usually starts within a day or two and then improves. However - we have always suggested that when you are trying to reduce that you clear the decks for the week ahead and rest and take things easy for that reduction - the DSNS approach replaces that to some extent but it is still worth remembering.

However - while I do appreciate her point about reducing, she is going about things the wrong way. If you cannot reduce the dose of pred without a return of symptoms than it is perfectly possible that her diagnosis is incorrect  A slow or incomplete response to an appropriate dose of pred or great difficulty in reducing may mean you have something else going on - it may be late onset RA or another inflammatory arthritis, they too respond to higher doses of pred but reemerge at lower doses. Or something completely different. But forcing a patient, effectively at "gunpoint", to reduce is NOT the way to go about it. She is a poor doctor - whatever her college results might suggest.

Where are you?

Hi Eileen, I am in Reno NV the USA.  I really like my doctor.  And she is trying very hard to get me to take many tests to see if something else is causing my inflamation.  But I don't like the way she is so stubborn about it NOT being PMR just because I've had it too long.  I had the vasculitis test and it was very clean.  Now I am to have a lung test because my oxygen is so low, a nerve test, and a endocrinology test.  Before I had her, I had a Dr. Prupus who was kinda famous for a rheumatologist (but he died) and he, too, worried that he had not diagnosed PMR rightly because I wasn't reducing well.  But I felt the diagnosis was right because the symptoms fit exactly.  The last thing he told me, after looking at one more hight SED rate was, "The numbers don't lie, so maybe you do have it.  The numbers don't lie."

I think it has been about 8 years of pain of the PMR kind.  Before that years of Fibromyalgia.  I was down to 10mg about 2 years ago, but got pneumonia and really crashed.  Then I got down from 20 to 15 for awhile, then up the pain went again, don't know why (I had three operations, maybe that was it).  I'm so down, very hard to be positive right now, but I expect I'll bounce back a little anyway.  Thanks everyone.

Personally I would follow your Drs advice. The 'go-slow is certainly a good plan and I am full of admiration & follow a lot of what Eileen and co advise BUT...I am noticing a feverish attitude on the forum to reducing steroids this way...

I have developed muscle pains possibly due to initial high dose 2 yrs ago, which is very like pmr , it is easy to confuse the two. More important to get off the steroids even if you get discomfort along the way..

I get the feeling that a lot of people on the forum turn up the steroids too readily, the trick is to distinguish between severe pain (steroids up) and discomfort while your body gets used to a lower dose.

I have only started to reduce by 1/2 mg since under 5mgs ! 

The forum has been a life saver and lots of folks offer great advise but I don't think it helpful to sew the seed of doubt into a patients mind and undermine the medics. I would try and get on with your consultant and give their advice a 'go', if  really doesnt work for you try and get referred elsewhere.