Crossed fingers for you, love the fighting spirit!!

My Alex had the same regimen as Cathi so may not be relevant to your question but will tell you just in case it is useful. In addition to the hair loss, Alex suffered a small amount of nausea, large amount of fatigue, and foaming phlegm (can't describe it any better). We attributed all but the hair loss to 5FU but our docs thought it was the platinum drug cisplatin(carboplatin is the same family). Like your John, my Alex is young (51 at diagnosis) and handled the side effects extremely well. He was ok for the first few days then about 6 days in, started feeling awful. This lasted for a week or less and then he felt better - almost normal by the next cycle. The thing that kept him going was the knowledge after the first cycle that there was one bad week during the three. I had to keep notes though and remind him as he could never remember and I would keep telling him "you will be feeling better by Tuesday, just 2 more days to go..." etc

I have no knowledge or experience with ifosfamide so can make no comment about it.

By the way the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) which is an alliance of 21 of the world leaders in the treatment of cancer and who are responsible for writing the guidelines used by healthcare professionals in the US state:

"NCCN believes that the best management of any cancer patient is in a clinical trial. Participation in clinical trials is especially encouraged".