Brain Mets - Decadron How much

Hello All:

I have a question for those of you who deal(dealt) with brain mets. I have radio surgery on a single met in August.

My post-radiosurgery in Oct showed a slight reduction in the mass -- but also increased edema (water). The surgeon exaplined that this swelling/fluid is likely an after-effect from radiosurgery.

My one symptom of the met: facial/head numbness hasn't resolved itself. I've been on 4mg decadron a day since surgery to keep swelling under control.

Well, my nuerosurgeon is trying to help me mimimize my decradron dose - which I appreciate because it makes me so jumpy. BUT, living wih facial numbness is no great tradeoff. So, I want to ask about increasing the decadron dose. Basically I was told the main two ways ot address the increased fluid is either with decadron and diuretic - or both.

Sooo, my question is to those of you who have been through sterotactic radiosurgery , would you mind sharing your experience with decaron, how much you took, whether it worked to keep swelling down, if you had any, how long you took it post-surgery,

Thanks so much