Steroids

I am sick of the side effects of the dexamethasone that they give me orally before my gemzar treatment. I have gained 10 pounds since I started Gemzar on 5/9 - lots of water retension. (I had been on carbo/taxol for 6 months previously and received dexamethasone IV - not so much weight gain or water retention but some insomnia). I can't sleep at all on the night that I have the treatment and am very hyper the day after and then I really crash - extreme fatigue. I also am given neulasta on the day after treatment to keep my white cell count up - not ure that i need it as my white count is very high. I am going to ask the doctor to either discontinue the dex... or reduce it and to discontinue the neulasta until we see if I really need it. Has anyone else experienced these problems? I have stage 3 ovarian cancer - inoperable at this time - diagnosed in October, 2007. The carbo/taxol brought the CA125 down but did not shrink the tumors. I won't know what the gemzar is doing until they do a CAT/PET after the 9th treatment end of July. I changed Drs and Medical Centers after the carbo/taxol because the Dr I was going to didn't seem to offer much hope.