Motor coordination symptoms and conditions

I was put on prednisone for asthma. I tapered down from 80 mg to 10 mg over 2 weeks. After coming off of the prednisone, I experienced nausea, extreme dizziness, felt disoriented, and had muscle weakness so bad that I could barely stand up. After several trips to the emergency room, my doctor, and an endocrinologist, they figured that I needed to be tapered off of the prednisone more slowly. The endocrinologist started me back on 10 mg of prednisone and tapered me down to 2.5 mg. Since I have stopped taking the prednisone, I have experienced dizziness,headaches, tremors, a rapid pulse rate, blurry vision and a sensitivity to light. I have been off the prednisone for two weeks now and every day is different. I have some good days and some bad days. Although I have my strength back and the nausea has subsided, the dizziness is debilitating and it seems that my balance and fine motor coordination is off. I feel very mentally foggy. The doctors do not seem to have any answers for me as to why all of this is happening. It has been a very scary and frustrating experience. I am concerned that the prednisone has done some serious damage to my nervous system. Has anyone ever had these side effects? Do they eventually subside and how long will it take? It has been the longest month of my life dealing with all of the effects of this medicine. Any advice would be appreciated.

I am a 62 year old healthy male. About two months ago I was prescribed 500 mg. Levaquin by my urologist for a suspected prostate infection. Within the first 24 hours I experienced strange visual effects and extreme fatigue. By the third day on the medication I began to notice motor coordination problems. On the fourth day I awoke with chills, major hand tremors, and extreme motor coordination difficulties in my hands (I was unable to pick up a coffee cup with only one hand). I stopped taking it at this point, of course, and the symptoms gradually declined. It was a terrifying experience.

About one month later I had a relapse of the original symptoms and immediately arranged an appointment with my regular physician, who ordered a brain MRI and a prescription for a beta blocker to relieve the tremors. The MRI was negative. My symptoms improved markedly, almost immediately, and have not returned, even though I am no longer taking the beta blocker (after one month of regular dosage). I have my fingers crossed for the future.

I learned that my sister had similar reactions to Levaqui, suggesting that there might be a genetic predisposition to such an extreme reaction. From now on I will indicate to medical personnel that I cannot tolerate any member of the fluoroquinalone family of antibiotics.

As a side note, it turned out that I did not have a prostate infection after all but rather that a sudden upward jump in a PSA reading led the urologist to suspect the infection. A retest showed that the reading was anomalous, completely out of line with my history of lab tests for PSA. The worrisome part of this experience is the physician's willingness to prescribe such a powerful drug without clear indication of an infection.