Hi List--

Thought I would add my experience to the rest re Tasmar.  I'll give my
neuro brownie points for promptness--no fool he when it comes to
malpractice lawsuits.  His sec'y /nurse? called me the day after the letter
came out and said to stop taking it and to add more Sinemet if I needed.
"Cold turkey?" I asked.  She agreed.  I was on the 100 mg 3x day regime and
assumed it would be a piece of cake.  Reluctantly, because it had really
been the only drug I'd found to help reduce my Sinemet and  people had been
telling me I seemed much perkier, I  put the pills in the closet.  It
hasn't been a disaster but it hasn't been fun.  My balance went off; I was
getting lots of festination; my knees felt weak; the time between pills,
which had been stretched to 5 or 6 hours was back down to 4, if that; and
my  speech got ever more whispery.  I've only had PD about 6.5 years, so I
don't have any freezing yet.  The timing was lousy--just before Christmas,
with all the shopping and getting ready for family to come.  I fell in the
kitchen raising a humongous bruise on my thigh, and then just 2 days before
company arrived, I fell in the garage hitting my face on the concrete floor
and cutting my eyebrow and inside my mouth.  Had a spectacular shiner for
the holidays but am all healed up now. (BTW, I violated my own advice in my
article about not pivoting and tripped over my own foot in the latter
instance.)

Somewhere along about 10 days into withdrawal, I  called my neuro's office
and told them to reactivate my Mirapex prescription (which I'd quit to
start Tasmar).  Now that I'm finally up to strength--,50mg 6x day--it's
helping me but not like Tasmar did.  And the sleep-shortened nights don't
help my energy level either.  This is not to complain, only report, but  I
'll sign off with one plea--HURRY WITH THAT ENTACAPONE!

Kathy Kunz, 63/ 94/92