Pain management while reducing Prednisone

If you have pain, why would you reduce further? Pred does not cure PMR, only manages inflammation (thus pain). You can do an experiment and increase dose from 5 to 6 or 7 for a few days and see if pain goes away and you will know the answer. I suspect you are a just below your ideal dose. On the other hand, Tylenol usually does not help with PMR pain, so it could be something different causing it.

I have to agree with Nick. If Tylenol is helping the pain on your painful days then it's not going to be PMR pain that you're feeling. PMR pain just does not respond to any kind of pain control meds. Really the only thing that's been found to control the pain is prednisone. Maybe you have arthritis of one nature or another. One thing you might want to do is to start charting your days so you know what the good days and bad days are. You could also check the weather for those bad days and record it as well. And I suggest that because thousands and thousands of people with arthritis complain that cold or wet weather makes them hurt more.

Hi Linda, we are all different and each case is different, but I don't reduce my Pred if I have any PMR pain. I jump my dosage up at any sign of a flare. I reduce my dosage at 10% or less. I have been basically PMR pain free for about a year and a half. Reducing from 30 mg to currently 5 mg. Good luck on the rest of your journey. Try to stay positive, active and smile. 🙂

If the pain is manageable with acetaminophen it might mean it's not PMR inflammation causing it.  If this is only one in a while it's also less likely to be PMR as too low a dose will result in increasing pain over the days.  I never increase my pred unless I am certain pain is caused by a PMR flare.  Pred is too serious a medication to be used likely and increased unless necessary.

If Tylenol helps it probably isn't PMR causing the pain and as the others have said if it were PMR it wouldn't be there one day not the next. Pred will help with OA pain and other things too - but they will reappear as you reduce the dose. However - you know what your PMR was originally and if you were at too low a dose for the PMR then it is likely the pain would increase slowly, depending on how much too low the pred dose is, until you got as bad as you were originally. 

As everyone has said including myself if Tylenol helps to relieve the pain then it's probably not pain from PMR. But that makes me wonder if you have developed another condition possibly rheumatoid arthritis and the prednisone you're taking is helping that but then on bad days you need Tylenol to help control the pain from that. Unfortunately both diseases can coexist in your body and make you wish it didn't. LOL

This is not a scientific answer, but if not sure why not stick with the 5 mg. which is not a huge amt. anyway, just to be sure. Don't go lowering too fast just to get off pred. I stayed on 5mg. for quite a while when I wasn't sure. Just a suggestion!