I have been on steroid therapy since Feb of this year and am having trouble tapering, but my question is that the Prednisone took care of all the previous symptoms such as knee pain and swelling, hip and back pain , neck pain and the horrible shoulder pain, but for the last few weeks I have hand and wrist pain that is only getting worse with my hand strength lessening. I dont see my new rheumatologist until next week - any similar episodes? yep that's me! My doc says despite the face I have a negative RA factor she says my PMR has morphed in to zero negative RA. I am on plaquenil and pred. My wrists and hands are very painful in the AM (even with the plaq) but it subsides during the day.well it seems that my increase in hand and wrist pain was due to the fact that I have relapsed so my steroid dose is back up again I really don't like roller coasters! As I read down the thread I was about to post and say that is exactly what happens to me when I try to go below my current dose - after 3 or 4 tries I realised that the pain that starts after a few days and then steadily gets worse is a sign that the dose is too low. Would be the same for a relapse, the dose you're on is suddenly too low to control the symptoms.