Frankly, I don't think you would need a month to know whether or not it will help. Prednisone works quickly and you should know within a couple days if your symptoms will be improving.

Also, 60 mg is a hefty dose. How did the doctor write the script for this...60 mg for how many days before starting a taper??

I don't think a month will cause permanent damage, but again, I don't think you will need a month. Typically, you can take Prednisone (even a larger dose) for up to 5 days (some says 7 days) and stop without a taper. I used to get 1000 mg by IV for 3-5 days in a row and stop without a taper, no problem. It's when you exceed that 5-7 days that the body stops making it's normal production of cortisol and the if you stop cold turkey, your go through withdrawal syndrome because your adrenal can actually shut down or become sluggish and then your are trying to function without any (or less then optimal) cortisol in your system. And trust me, the withdrawal syndrome from steroids is NO picnic!!

So you should maybe talk to your neuro tomorrow and ask about the length of time (and dosing) to take for an appropriate trial. At this point, you may just want to see if it IS going to help...then you can look at a long term approach once you find out if it will help.