My surgery was rough. None of the doctors or nurses could find a vein to start my IV. Swedish hospital has a rule that if a doctor or nurse tries twice to find a vein and fails both times then someone else has to try. Seven different doctors/nurses stuck me twice each (yes, I counted) and then Dr. Bolton came along. By this time a nurse had arrived with an ultrasound to get the IV in that way, and I was literally in tears. I asked Dr. Bolton not to keep digging around in my arm anymore and to just let them use the ultrasound to find the vein, but he ignored me and tried three more times to put it in, with me crying and telling him to stop. When he finally let the nurse with the ultrasound put the IV in, it went in within about two minutes and with much less pain. Also, I had been told at my consultation prior to the surgery that I was going to have an epidural for the pain, but it was never put in. I'm not sure if Dr Bolton is to blame for that or not; the last thing I remember I was wheeled into a very cold room with a team of doctors and I was sitting up in bed leaning my head against someone's shoulder while Dr Bolton was doing something to my back. I'm not sure if he was the one who was supposed to administer the epidural or not, but if it was him then he failed badly. Recovering without painkillers was horrible (I have kidney problems and didn't want to take any opioids so the epidural was the only painkiller besides Tylenol that I could take).

Submitted Nov. 3, 2018