Many here have had good symptom control with Mobic (it also works amazingly well on animals whose improvement is obvious & clearly due to the drug). There are well over a dozen different NSAID's that you can try... including some available over the counter (advil, aleve) which you can discuss taking at a prescription dose with your doctor. You should take any given one for 2-3 weeks straight to give it the full chance to produce improvement, although you should notice some improvement earlier it can take that long to reach full improvement.
NSAID's work quite differently than prednisone. Some here will be able to take prednisone if they also take some stomach protecting medication at the same time like Prevacid, Pepcid, Prilosec, etc. It is a little strange to be able to tolerate NSAID's but not prednisone! Be sure to take all of these medications with a good amount of food to reduce the likelihood of stomach problems.
Hope you find something that works.
