False Advertising

Each chemo cycle will require
a three-day hospital stay,
they told us.
But severe nausea
stretched young Eli’s first stay
to six days,
when he was mercifully released
on Christmas Eve.

Now it’s cycle two, day eight,
With no end in sight.
The new nausea drug,
in a patch behind his ear,
made him so sleepy
that he woke up only long enough
to go to the bathroom.
One time Eli was so confused
that he tried to wash his hands
in the laundry cart.

But he wasn’t eating,
so off came the patch,
and in swooped the nausea.
The doctors keep mixing up
different cocktails,
but still no magic potion.
Eli vomits and vomits and vomits.
After five days without food,
he mournfully looks
up from his bed
and says, I just want
some of Nonna’s noodles.
When his 5’11” frame
falls to 100 pounds,
they start IV nutrition.

Next comes fever,
then diarrhea,
then C. diff,
then mucositis,
then kidney dysfunction.

Now we’ve been here two weeks,
and Eli feels worse than ever.
So I want to know,
since we didn’t get our three-day hospital stay,
could we please get a refund?