Thanks to everyone for the well wishes for Mr. Fish. He's still pretty hyper and will probably not sleep tonight. At least we got some new books in the mail today. He thanks you, too! My daughter (age 4) says he has polka dots.

Nanci - Dexamethasone is used in the real world. I didn't know of the Mt. Everest usage. It's fairly common for combatting contact dermatitis - at least here in the MS Delta region. That's not to say it's common anywhere else. Our medical care here is...not the best. I got a shot of dexamethasone from a dermatologist when I went in to figure out why I react to pretty much everything that comes in contact with my skin. Turned out to be detergents, latex, most plants (minor irritation usually), carpet, and physical pressure and other things. Of course, I wasn't reacting to anything at the time, but he gave me the shot anyway. Lousy doctor. Now Allegra seems to fix most of the reactions and is probably why I didn't react to the fig. You would have loved the docs "entourage" of pretty little 20 somethings following him around. It was just gross. I think he had little man syndrome. Anyway - I digress - if you have the unfortunate occasion to have a major bout of contact dermatitis and the doc recommends dexamethasone, see if they have another option. It makes you feel like you're buzzing inside and are really really hyper. My heartrate stayed elevated for almost 24 hours and I made 7 trips to the bathroom in one night. Not good.