Palo Alto Medical Foundation Hospital

I really liked Dr Wetter, he was very to the point and answered all the questions my husband and I had. He discussed all the risks and emphasized aftercare and how important this is to be sucessful. Before meeting I had only heard positive things about him and these were all confirmed at the consultation.

Dr. Feng was great. He communicates via email, phone and in detail in person. He has a great deal of laproscopic experience and he hand-sews during important parts of the procedure. He is very likeable and nice and his office staff is great too. He emphasizes aftercare. I am very happy that I will be having him now as my surgeon.

Dr. Wetter was very nice and pleasant at our first meeting.
After that he was even more pleasant and we
joked a lot. His office is very busy, so I had
to wait some time for appointments and surgery.
But I knew that going into this.

My surgeon is the best. He is firm, yet soft spoken. His office staff is pretty good. He is always pretty booked up, though. He totally emphasizes excercise.

His surgical competence and bedside manner are both great.

I rate him a 10!

she is a straight talker and serious about her work. seems to be concerned about the needs of patient. I was at mills penninsula hospital in Burlinggame and The pre-op was really informative. I can e-mail them with questions anytime. The staffthere was great. She is strict about losing 10% before surgery. The staff are fairly new to her and getting use to her routine. I always got answers and a quick response so far. I feel that the surgical competence was really high and I feel that she incorporates bedside manner into that. She was straight forward on the very first visit about what to expect after surgey and all the risks. I first met her at stanford. She told me that I could have problems mostly as a result of eating too fast or not chewing well or not taking my vitamns eating enough protien ect. Her aftercare seems to be good I only had surgery 4 days ago but my first visit is in 2 weeks. I WISH I could add some negatives but I think having this surgery laproscopic helped with the recovery a GREAT deal. I have 4 other abdominal surgeries to compare it to. I can say that my insurance (medi-medi) would not pay for liquid pain meds or zantac and that sucks to crush and swallow!!

I was very impressed with Dr. Wetter, his office and his staff. Everyone is very professional and yet warm and friendly. Dr. Wetter is a most respected physician and surgeon and just hearing how people in our support group idolize the man makes me very confident of his ability and skill. I feel that I could not be in better hands and I'm looking forward to my surgery with complete faith in his competency.

On my first visit he asked me about my dieting history and family history of obesity. He explained the procedure, the benefits and risks, in its entirety and welcomed my questions. He asked me if I was scared and I admitted that I was a bit frightened because I realize it is major surgery and that's no walk in the park. But I told him I had researched the procedure and felt confident that it was the right thing for me and he agreed that I was a perfect candidate.

But you don't get a free ride with Dr. Wetter. He'll want you to prove to him that you are serious about losing weight before he will recommend you to your insurance company for the surgery. I merely followed his instructions to focus on protein and fiber and lost about 26 pounds in the five weeks between appointments.

He asked me if I'd attended a meeting of the support group and was pleased to discover that I had. He told me to continue attending as a lot of the questions I'd eventually have could be answered there by people who had actually experienced the surgery and recovery.

He is a very busy physician and it took about twice as long as I was told it would for him to write the letter of recommendation to my insurance company. But it took less than two weeks to get my approval so I was pleasantly surprised by that.

The one thing I didn't care about was that his new associate seems to be insisting on a 10% weight loss before surgery and a lot of people simply aren't capable of that. I've heard quite a few complaints about that fact during the support group meetings. Neither Dr. Wetter or any of his associates seem to have ever had a weight problem and perhaps a bit more empathy would not be out of place here. But that is the only negative thing I can think of to mention. But I'll be happy to update after my surgery and let you know how that experience goes.

Sept 30, 02
Had my first appointment with Dr. Wetter. He was a very nice man. He explained the surgery, risks involved and benefits. His staff was very nice and helpful. They are in the process right now of getting me approved by the insurance company. I only wish that when I had made the appointment they would have told me to get my physic consult and nutrionist appointments done before hand so that I would have had them ready at the appointment. I was able to get my physic consult done but will have to wait for the other appointment. I am just hoping that with my current issues I will get approved. Dr. Wetter is currently a minimum of 60-90 days out for appointments and surgery. This was a little disappointing but he was the only surgeon that SCIPA would approve so that is probably the reason for the delay.

Dr. Wetter is very upfront in how important aftercare is. The hospital he works out of has a great program available.

I am very pleased with Dr. Wetter and look forward to surgery.

10/1/02 I went for my initial consultation today. I was very nervous. I went in to the office 10 minutes before my appointment which was at 9:00 am. The receptionist was friendly. I filled out basic forms. I was called in at 9:00. They started by taking my weight on a BMI machine. It said I was 10 pounds heavier than my scale at home. That was depressing. Then the nurse took a photo of me. So glad I wore something nice and had make-up on:) Next, on to the exam room. The nurse took my blood pressure. Everything good there. Dr. Foster came in and was very personable and professional. She answered all of my questions. Her main focus was to educate me about the different surgeries. Dr. Foster went over in detail what is expected of me to gain long term goals. Plus the fact that I need to lose 10% of my weight before the surgery. Dr. Foster went over the risks in depth and answered all my questions. I have great confidence in Dr. Foster's surgical ability. At this point I feel she will also have a great bedside manner.

Dr. Foster was great! She is very knowledgeable because this is her specialty! She is very considerate and explains about the surgery. She does have the rule of pre-op that you MUST loose 10% prior to surgery. She will schedule your surgery after loosing 1/2 of the 10%. Her staff was very professinal. She discussed the procedure (lap and open), where the incisions will go, etc. And she discussed the risks of the surgery. Her coorinator, Julie, is nice and is willing to help get things rolling for you. She is very busy so leave her a message-she will get back to you in 24-48 hours. Be patient! All in all, I am very satisfied with my consultation.

April 18th, 02
I met Dr. Wetter on the 19th of March, I also met Terry, his surgery coordinator THEY BOTH ARE AWESOME! Dr. Wetter is a very kind, inofrmative, warm person who answered all of my questions, I didnt feeel rushed at all, I got all of my questions answered. He addressed all of my concerns and was VERY honest about possible complications. I asked him if any of his patients had passed away and he told me that 1 did, but it was due to complications of his co-morbs and didnt take his necessary medications or something like that. I cant wait till I see him again on my pre-op. I cant wait to be his patient on that table!!!!! Terry ROCKS, she always gets back to me quickly when I was having questions about insurance and my paperwork, I felt like she was really on my side and she is very supportive. I CANT WAIT! JUNE 10TH!! WHOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOO

Feb. 23rd. 02
I only have dealt with his office staff thus far. They are very nice and helpful. Anne Timberlake is their coordinator, she is very kind and helpful, best way to contact her is via email. Check out www.thinnerfuture.com and it will direct you to Annes information. You HAVE to go through ANNE FIRST before the office staff will even schedule a consult for you with Dr. Wetter. Anne as to determine if you are an appropriate candidate for a visit. As Dr.Wetter is VERY BUSY. I got my packet of information from Anne in the mail in about 4 or 5 days. The packet as a bunch of information that you must read through first.
I DID NOT CONTINUE TO PURSUE DR. FOSTER BECAUSE SHE HAS ONLY BEEN DOING THESE SURGERIES FOR A YEAR... (I am not saying that is bad, im just saying that I don't feel comfortable with that amount of experience) I look forward to my first meeting with them in April.. It seems SO far away.