I have little hands too, but I can play E shape barre chords, but not A shape ones (well not very well anyway). I'm a great fan of the capo too - transposing from F to D is almost second nature to me now.

Another caution about repeated cortisone treatments: my mum almost died a few years back because of Addison's disease. Its extremely rare, but one of the causes is thought to be previous treatment with corticosteroids.

Bagpuss