L. Albert Wetter Bariatric Surgeon M.D.

1. He was a very serious man

2. As I went through the process, with ease, I realized how wonderful he was....

3. Very helpful and encouraging, especially Anne Timberlake and Terry.

4. Nothing

5. It works!

6. Alot

7. Yes

8. Advised me of all I needed to know.

9. 10

10. Both great! !

It took 6 weeks to get an appointment with Dr. Wetter, but it was well worth it. I have heard great things about Dr. Wetter and knew that he was the surgeon I wanted. I immediately felt at ease with Dr. Wetter and was very impressed with his background and experience. I talked with him for about 45 minutes and he answered all my questions. He went into great detail about the surgery and was very upfront about the potential risks of the surgery as well as the amount of weight I was likely to lose. My husband came with me and the doctor made sure to include him in the conversation. Besides being a very skilled surgeon, he has a very extensive after care program including follow-up visits, support group meetings, access to a nutritionist, etc. The staff seems very friendly as well. My only complaint is with the time it took for the doctor's office to write the request for approval letter. Terry said it would take 2-3 weeks, but took 6 weeks instead. However, it was around the Christmas Holiday season and that could have slowed down the process. I am currently waiting for approval from my insurance company, I hope to have it soon. Dr. Wetter is the best!

I had Lap RNY on June 26, 2000 and have lost 161 pounds. Dr Wetter is a wonderful surgeon. He is warm and caring and has a great sense of humor.He also shows genuine interest in patients children. My kids adore him. My surgery went fine and my recovery was great.
Dr Wetter gets my vote for Doctor of the year! :)

I met Dr. Wetter for the first time on August 8, 2001 for a consultation concerning GBS. He explained to me quite clearly how the surgery was performed and what the risks and benefits were. He seems like a nice person and I felt at ease talking with him. Peior to my visit with him, I had checked out his credentials and felt he had the training and experience to perform this surgery competently. He performs RNY laparoscopically and this was an important consideration for me. Dr. Wetter's staff was also very relaxed and pleasant. His surgical coordinator, Terry, is the whirlwind of activity that many WLS reports described her to be. She is straigtforward, caring and has a good sense of humor. Dr. Wetter performs GBS as part of the Mills-Peninsula Hospital Obesity Surgery Program in San Mateo, California. While I was in Dr. Wetter's office, he arranged for me to talk with a patient also in his office who was about 10 days post-op. I really appreciated that he did this because just being face-to-face talking with someone who had so recently been through the surgery and being able to ask questions was extremely beneficial for me. I am coming to Dr. Wetter from out-of-state and so have little opportunity to attend the WLS support groups in that area. Prior to meeting with Dr. Wetter, I had talked with Anne Timberlake at M-P and received an informative booklet describing the GBS program. Anne is very helpful and very busy, but she answered my email questions within a few days of posting. I feel quite confident about the team I hope to be working with for this surgery. Surgical competence is, for me, the most important consideration when selecting a surgeon; however, a good bedside manner is an invaluable add-on to that competency. Based on my impressions to date, I believe that Dr. Wetter has both.

I have only had one visit with Dr. Wetter, but I must say I was very impressed with him right from the start. I had read many wonderful things about him on the internet and was pleased to find out for myself that they were all true. When he walked into the room my first thought was "He sure looks young". (I'm still not use to having Dr's younger than myself...but now that I'm 50 I guess that's kind of inevitable!) Dr. Wetter was very informative and took the time to answer all my questions. It was nice to talk with a Dr. who was so understanding. My former internist always told me just to cut back on food intake and exercise by pushing myself away from the table!
Dr. Wetter's office staff were very nice. No one got that shocked look on their face when I stepped on the scale! Terry was very helpful with the insurance and explained to me how long it might take to get approval. Aftercare seems to be a big part of Dr. Wetter's program. He has a support group with Anne Timberlake(nurse) once a month. Anne is extreamly helpful and prompt about answering any questions I have e-mailed to her. I am looking forward to attending her post-op sessions.
I was impressed not only with Dr. Wetter's surgical competence, but also his bedside manner. I have a real good feeling for what I am about to do and am thankful I found Dr. Wetter.

I found Dr. Wetter on the Internet! I really did quite a bit of research. Money/time were not issues for me, but expertise in doing the lapraoscip surgery, a kind bedside manner and giving adequate pain med's were critical to me. I spent countless hours reading about different surgeons, and Dr. Wetter beat them alllll out by a huge percentage.

Consistently, everyone spoke very highly of his expertise AND beside manner.

I met Dr. Wetter 1x. He was extremely curteous, polite and professional. I've dealt with quite a few doctors in my life. Although quite a few people have posted that they found Dr. Wetter direct, straightforward, non-nonsesne and somewhat abrupt...I didn't. I found him informative, open and caring!

His office staff was kind, worked on and got me an almost immediate approval (I love Terry)and scheduled date.

Dr. Wetter informed me about the risks, the after-care and the impact the surgery would have on my life.

Is there a rating higher than excellent?? I can't say enough about Dr. Wetter, and his staff.

And.......yes I would reccomend him.

By-the-way....My surgery is one week from today! July 30th!

Love, Alexandra


Follow Up Remarks:

Pre-Op

My husband and I met with Dr. Wetter for my pre-op appt. He was soooo polite, answered my husbands questions, and allayed some of my fears. Evidently, he has a zero fatality rate, and that is comforting.

2 more days to go...Gosh I'm scared.

Post Op

What a difference a week can make.

I'm home now. My opinion of Dr. Wetter has somewhat changed. He was brisk in the hospital. I was in a lot of pain for the 1st 2 days, and on a scale of 1-10, on a level of 10+ the 1st 2 days, and 7-8, the rest of the week. Alllllll he cared about was walking! Walk! Walk! Walk! He adequately controled the pain, was more than willing to keep you comfortable, but alllll that mttered was walking. On day 2, I had walked 4 times down the lenght of the hall, and the nurses only wrote down 1x, and said I only walked out of my door. He was very irrited about this.

I had a fever of 100.1 to 101.5 all week. When I was advanced to level 2, I became ill when I ate the cereal of soup.

When I brought all of this up, his answer was....walk! Over and over. By day 5, I'd had enough.

The nurse who runs the program, was just a tad patronizing. When I voiced my concerns to her, her eyes just glazed over ( a la "Stepford Wife's" ) and told me it was my responsibility to walk...! :O

And then a small light was going on....I asked her what happnes if anyones gets pneumonia...ill,...vomits....wahtever, then she remarked "We have a wonderful track record here, and typically it is because the patient wasn't following our program correctly."

And all the little comments I heard throughout the week gelled...."we're having our 100th by-pass surgery party"...."Dr. Wetter has a perfect record"...."Our patients do soooo well, that they leave in 3-4 days"...."This surgery has put the hospital on the map"....

And then it occutred to me. If someone did get sick, whateverrr.....

this enourmous armour could act as a sheild for the doctor and the hsopital.

Why if you got pneumonia, or couldn't handle food, or your pain was not typical, or you vomited to much....it would never be anyone's fault but your own.

When I left, my fever was still 101. something...and I had aquired Thrush in my mouth. I was still having quite a bit of pain, and feeling "tight" in my chest.

It didn't matter.

I'm home now. My fever is 101.8, and I could not hold down my teensy dinner of cereal or applesauce. I've been taking sips of ice tea and juice...but my mouth is burning so that's not helping.

I left the hospital feeling very angry and not feeling taken care of.

I just need to remind everyone, that this is my opinion, and other people that have had the surgery don't share my experience.

Dr. Wetter is an excellent surgeon. I'm alive, and from what many nurses said my sticthes looked great.

My biggest fear was not surviving tyhe surgery, and I did.

At no time did I question Dr. Wetter's skills as a surgeion, and I would only reccomend him for this surgery.

However, I would have my own doctor invoved in Post Op Care.

I have concerns that the reputation of the hsopital and the doctor's has become more important that the care of the patient.

At least is was in my case.

I was so nervous before my consult visti but once I met with Dr. Wetter - a complete feeling of calmness came over me. My imprssion of him didnt change - other than it got better.

He explained the entire procedure to me on more than 1 occasion. He told me about his website that he has & about the support group that hospital has for its patients. He emphasized that once the surgery is over the importance of eating right & exercising. The biggest struggle for me will be the eating right - the exercise I can deal with!

I have had surgeries before - so we didnt go over to much of the risks of surgey but he did tell me the risks with this particular surgery.

The only thing was that I didnt see him ( or least dont remember seeing him on the day of my surgey. It was on a friday - so I saw his partner over the weekend!

I met with Dr. Wetter on June 19th. I really liked him. He was very open and seemd to be honest about possible complications, especially, since I'm 50. I would recommend him. The only disappointment is that he's booked so far out. Surgery could be Oct/Nov/Dec. I guess it depends upon the insurance approval.

When I went in to see Dr. Cooper here in Chico, he was very upfront and straight forward. He was a little older than I thought he'd be for some reason... His office is quite outdated, but the staff is nice. I was dissapointed because they mailed me a packet of information about 2 months before my appt, basically at the consultation (that cost me $50 cash) he read the booklet to me... I had already read it about 3 times by then... and I was practically finishing his sentences for him because I already knew what he was going to say. I have decided to check out a few surgeons in the bay area because I am interested in laparoscopic surgery, and Cooper only does open. Dr. Wetter in Burlingame seems to be a good one to research, so I'm going to check him out, and make an appt. for a consultation.

6/7/01--Dr. Wetter did the surgery, some nurses there have had him do rny's for them, so you know he's good. But I still really do like Dr. Baggs, who checked up on my and got me ready to go home.

5/29/01--Met Dr. Wetter, he's very nice and answered all my questions. Since he's the Sr. surgeon he made a big deal about Dr. Baggs finally giving him a patient after all the patients he's given to Dr. Baggs.

4/13/01--In the waiting room I met another patient who was post op and had only good things to say about the surgery. The office staff was nice.

My first impression of Dr. Baggs was neutral, I was expecting to meet with Dr. Wetter. Dr. Baggs explained the procedure and asked questions. He's very straight forward and honest. I felt that he was hearing everything I said and was not distracted.

By the end of the appt. he was very interested in helping me solve this health problem (obesity) I got the impression that he is very concerned that this is the right choice for me as an individual, he's not in a hurry to just do another sugery.

They have a comprehensive program at Mills, which is why I chose them over the "local guy" They stress that I must attend support groups and may want to have some personal counseling as well. Also, Dr. Baggs stresses working with a nutrionist. His attitude is that this is a comprehensive change that must be addressed from all areas of my life.

Terry (surgical coordinator) did an excellent job of keeping on top of things and getting my approval quickly.