Mills-Peninsula Health Services Hospital

IN OCTOBER WHEN I MET DR. WETTER HE WAS VERY NICE AND STRAIGHT FORWARD ABOUT EVERY DETAIL.
I LIKED DR.WETTER EVEN MORE BY THE END OF MY VISIT,BECAUSE HE TOOK SO MUCH TIME GOING OVER EVERY LITTLE DETAIL,NOT LIKE MOST DOCTORS I HAVE SEEN OR WORKED FOR.MY MOTHER AND SON CAME WITH ME TO AND BELIEVE ME MY MOM WAS NOT NICE ABOUT HOW SHE QUESTIONED EVERYTHING ABOUT HIM AND THE SURGURY.
HIS OFFICE STAFF SEEMS VERY NICE EVERY TIME I HAVE SPOKE WITH THEM.THE ONLY PROBLEMS THAT THERE HAS BEEN IS GETTING MY LETTER PRINTED UP AND TO THE INSURANCE.IT TOOK 2+ MONTHS OF MY PHONE CALLS TO GET TERRY AND MY INS. TOGETHER AND WITHIN A HOUR I WAS APPOVED FOR SURGURY.AND THEN IN JANUARY I HAD A DATE FOR THE 2ND OF APRIL.MILLS HOSPITAL HAS A VERY GOOD PROGAM FROM TOP TO BOTTOM,SUPPORT GROUP TO GYM TO THE DOCTORS AND ALSO THE NURSES.THEY COVER EVERYTHING THAT IS NEEDED BEFORE AND AFTER.

I had sugery with Dr.Wetter on Jan.22,2001.
I liked him,he is very BLUNT.If you can't handle that type of person,don't go.
I found he has a great sense of humor,and he visited me regularly while I was in the hospital.He explains the whole procedure cleanly and honestly.
His office staff is great,Terri,who handles your insurance is an angel,and God forbid she is out sick,she in my opinion,is the back bone of that office.
One more thing about Dr.Wetter.
If you smoke,STOP.He won't tolerate it ! I know,I had to quit.

Dr. Wetter is wonderful. It never did I still think he is the best. His office staff is caring, wonderful, and very helpful with everything. There is not a bad thing I can say about Dr. Wetter. That he is by far the best surgeon you can choose to perform your surgery. His emphasizes on aftercare is very high, he likes to see you every 3 months. Yes he has a structured aftercare program with support group that meet every 3rd Saturday of the month. He explained the risks in great detail. My overall rating of Dr. Wetter is that I am extremely pleased with the choose I made with choosing him as my surgeon. Definetly Both

I met with a doctor in the Fresno, CA area, however, I was not comfortable with him or the fact that the hospital he uses does NOT have an ICU. The nearest ICU is 13 miles away. The drive was herendous too. I didn't like the idea of going that far on a semi-continual basis. So, I decided to look for a "local" doctor. Unfortunately, the closest local doctor is at least an hour's drive in any given direction. I started doing research and stumbled across Dr. Wetter (quite by accident). When I read the fact that he pioneered the lap-RNY and all the positive comments on this website, I decided to make an appointment.


I appreciate Dr. Wetter's direct manner. He doesn't beat around the bush and tells you in very simple language the benefits and RISKS to this life altering step. Dr. Wetter explains the procedure but really emphasizes what happens after surgery. After all, what you do, or DON'T do can make or break the surgery. He discusses in detail the aftercare process and outlines your responsibility as a patient if the procedure is to be successful and so that you FULLY benefit from it. His office is extremely busy and I have had to wait on hold for extended periods of time to speak to someone. Dr. Wetter does return calls in a timely fashion though.

Since I was already approved by insuranc& had a consultation with my previous surgeon, every moved very quickly. I had a surgery date 2 months away from our meeting.
I was impressed by Dr. Wetter at our first meeting. He was concerned,concise,organized & so is his staff.
His office staff is efficent & friendly.
The aftercare team is very knowledgable. I was visited everyday by my surgeon, his assistant, hisnuse/program coordinator & a dietitician.
Not, only was the surgery successful, Dr. Wetter also managed to take out my stone laben gallbladder at the same time,laproscopically!

When I had my initial consultation with Dr. Wetter I was a bit nervous, because well I have never had major surgery, and this is pretty major. I wasn't worried about death, or anything like that, but just the whole thought about being the fish on the chopping block!! Dr. Wetter came right in (actually early to my appointment) and point at ease. He was very straightforward and obviously caring.

So far he has my highest recomendation.

Dr Wetter is the best...I'm doing great! Go on, take it from me--- I like loosing weight!!

He was a very pleasant man.

10/12/2000

I have been looking into this surgery since March and have now come to the conclussion this is the ONLY option for me. I have a rare disease called Dercum's and this is the only known treatment for it.
I have a wonderful dear loving kind sweet friend her name is Becki and husband who is equally sweet are helping me through each stage because they both have had the surgery. They are members of obesity help.com

It has taken me several months to get my PCP to give me a referal. San Mateo County General Hospital "special clinics" had indeed received my request but Cheryl Perry informed me and I quote "they have NEVER received it." However I had verified this 2 weeks prior to making the appointment Needless to say I had to then get ANOTHER referal from my PCP which I personally picked up and made a copy of it before I will give it to San Mateo County General Hospital in person.
I have an initial appointment October 17th for a consult. I am excited and impatient and hope to receive an approval quickly.

It is now Nov. 23 and i am still waiting. I went to see Dr. Wetter on Oct 17, and it seems he does not take "out of town or out of county" Medi-cal any more. This confuses me as i thought this was a state wide ins. and once you take it you take it. I did not know that they could discriminate like this. I think that he does not want to hassle the paper work, how sad that this could even be a factor. This is what burns me about these doctors, they build their practices on state ins. and then when they have a well established practice they dump the Medi-Cal patients for the bigger bucks. Then they will only take higher paying patients. The county hospitals do the same. It is not as if this country can not afford it, it is that they want to keep the profit margin large. To heck with the people that got us here, let us just make as much money as we can.
Well to make a long story short, Dr. Wetter pushed me off onto his new associate who has never done this surgery before. Needless to say i have huge reservations about this. His statement to me was "how els is he supposed to learn" My answer to that was on someone els, especially since i had a rare disease. I was told that i could not have the surgery any other way. So I met with doctor Baggs and he was nice but did not strike me as confident, and since then he has lost all of my records.
My story does not end here! I have gone to my GYN for some problems i was having and they have found a mass in the pelvic area the size of 14 cm. I have been sent to an oncologist. Through some testing she seems to think that there is only a small chance it is cancer. (i think it is related to my illness.) But none the less I have to have surgery for this. She works at Stanford and tried to get Dr. Vierra to preform the WLS at the same time so i wouldn't have to suffer twice. Dr. Vierra takes Medi-Cal but for some reason not for this surgery. Again i think because of paper work. So now i have to have 2 very invasive and painful surgeries weeks apart. I am feeling pretty hopeless at this point. I am not being dramatic when i say i hope i get the chance to write here again. WLS patients know the risk of heavy people having surgery and now double that. I feel less than and pushed around and scared.

Dr Wetter is very very nice. He was very supportive from the beginnning and didn't make me feel fat, just that he understood that I needed help. His office staff is very helpful, and his scheduling nurse Terry is the BEST! He is very honest about aftercare and sticking to what he and the nutritionist tell me to do.

Update 11/04

I am now 5 days post op. Dr Wetter is a miracle worker and very skilled. I have 6 small incisions, some less than the width of a finger nail. He came and saw me every day and was always very encouraging. I feel very lucky to have found him.

Dr. Wetter was very warm and caring and made me feel so comfortable. He was very thorough in explaining the surgery and answering my questions. His office staff on first impression were very nice Terri his scheduler is very busy but very helpful. The only negitive is that since Dr. Wetter only performs two WLS surgeries a week it will most likely be Jan or Feb before my surgery is scheduled. When you see Dr. Wetter it is best to be very well prepared so do your research since he does require a phsy evaluation and Dr. Schwartz (phsy dr) is very concerned in making sure that you know exactly what it is that you are planning so be sure you know what the pros and cons of this tool are.