James Weber Bariatric Surgeon M.D.,F.A.C.S.

I met Doc Weber at his info meeting on Feb
12 at Swedish Ballard Hospital.All I can say
is that he and his staff are very caring
people. I met Doc Weber again at my appt
at his office,and I was so impressed with
his humor and compassion. My husband and I
went to Stevens Hospital to meet with one of
his post op patients.I think that he requires
alot of his patient before all your info goes to insurance review so that you are well
informed and educated about what to expect
post op. All in all everything has gone real
well. My next step is to start bugging my
insurance company. I know I will be approved
I am just impatient,like everyone else. Each
morning I have to tell myself that I am one
day closer to the other side.

02/01/01<br>
Dr. Weber is very real, has a killer sense of humor, and an extremely positive attitude. He's strict, but that's probably why he has such a high success rate. I'll write more post-op, but for now, I'd rate him a 10. I feel comfortable in his care.
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02/26/01<br>
Four days post-op. I'm home now. I wrote to Dr. Weber about some fairly minor questions, and to let him know how I was doing. I had a response in less than 24 hours, which is very impressive. He seems to really emphasize aftercare. I have a followup appointment with him on March 8.
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04/19/01<br>
My March 8 appointment has come and gone, and I had my 8-week checkup today. I still highly recommend Dr. Weber to anyone in WA seeking an excellent surgeon.

Dr. Weber was fantastic and very encouraging. He considers you a patient for life. I felt well cared for and like he was rooting for me. My impression of him only improved over time, although I would have loved it if he weren't so busy so that I could have sat down with him and really talked. Lisa in his office is great. She is really encouraging, helpful, and has a great attitude. Pam, on the other hand, while quite capable, was often rude, not encouraging at all, and generally downright unpleasant. One time I caught her on a good day, but other than that, my interactions with her have not been that positive. However, she does have a tough job, and I understand that she is excellent in dealing with the insurance companies. Dr. Weber is a big advocate of aftercare, much more so than many surgeons that I have talked with. He is also much more conservative than most, requiring 8 full weeks of blended, strained diet. But he does that to allow your body to heal before you go sticking pieces of food into it, and also to help prevent the throwing up that often accompanies the introduction of new foods. Because you wait 8 weeks, even if you do have issues with throwing up, it does not do the kind of damage that throwing up two weeks after surgery. Consequently, Dr. Weber has only done 1 revision on one of his own patients in over 600+ surgeries. Overall, I would rate him as an excellent surgeon, and would go to him again for any other surgery needs for which he is qualified. His surgical competence would be rated higher than his bedside manner by those who are not comfortable with someone who gets straight to the point. Since I am a "to the point" kind of person, I thought it was fine.

I met Dr. Weber at the mandatory seminar he has once a month. I must say that I got a great feeling from him. He's so...competent. He's done over 700 WLS, and I like that he has such a strict program. He only wants patients who are truly committed, and requires that the patient stick to a pretty tough regimen. That's probably why he's the surgeon with the best success rate and fewest complications. In fact, he's often repairing other WLS from other surgeons!

Had first group meeting with Dr. Weber and staff. Thanks to all the postings here I knew what to expect.

Dr. Weber is a no-nonsense, straight forward man who definately cares about you has a whole person. I'm looking forward to working with Dr. Weber and his staff.

My first impression was, and I'm sorry for saying this, "What an asshole." This was true.

As the group session went on, I felt better of Doc Weber. To me then, he was quirky. A little funny and generally sincere.

Originally, his staff to me were great. They were very informative and seemed like they cared. Towards the end of the group, They seemed rude and it felt like they thought they were doing a favor for the people in group by suppling the info, for being their and basically doing everything their job entails them to do. I understand they work hard and that it was towards the end of a working day but, for a person like me in which it was my first time at a meeting of this nature, It almost turned me away and I almost left prematurly.

Aftercare was a big topic. They couldn't stress it enough. They explained it very well. It also sounds like their program is great.

Surgery risks were explained both by doc Weber and his staff. They both did a great job. I acyually took a few minutes to think if I was doing the right thing but, with their well explained, documented reasonings, I believe it is the right choice for me.

I would rate the staff an 7.5 and I would give doc Weber a 9.

I believe a need for both surgical competence and bedside manner is called for in this setting.

I really liked Dr. Weber...seems to have compassion for people who have weight issues.

3/7/01 - haven't met him yet. Have 1st consultation on 4/2/01.

I first heard about Dr. Weber from another patient, Eileen, who is a long time friend of mine. I have researched and feel that Dr. Weber is the only Dr for me.
I first met Dr Weber at an orientation that is a must if you have Dr Weber do the surgery. At the orientation there was a lot of information from hand outs and speakers that were patients of Dr Weber. The best part was Dr Weber he spoke and took questions for as long as there were questions. I found him to be very caring, honest and, from that meeting, capable. I was given some handouts with a lot of instructions. I began the necessarys steps to getting an surgy date. Dr Weber requires complete blood work, mental health professionals complete assessment, which took three visits and filling out several pages of questions. I think that took the longest, the questions were good because it made you really think about what you were doing and why. I also met with a nutitionist, who also told you like it is. Dr Weber wants you to know this surgey is not all that has to be done to make you a healther happies thinner person. I feel that if you can get to the point of making the surgery date you will have no surprises. I finally met with Dr Weber and he went over a questionaire that I completed for his office. He is not what I expected a serious surgen to be. I found him easy to talk to and I got the feeling that he does not do all the surgeries for all the people who come to him. If he feels you are not going to follow directions and do as you are suppose to do then he is not going to waste my time nor his. Now that I have done all I am to do and provided all documentation, Dr Weber's office staff now presents the findings to my insurance company, which is Aetna. I am now waiting to hear about their response. One other thing that I did was to get my medical records and gave Dr Weber the necessay ones that would further cement my case.
I am now getting information on support groups in my area. I know that their support will help my through the rough spots. I do not think that all my problems will be solved with this suregery, I know this is a way to healthier living, but I still need to do my part.

My immediate impression of Dr. Weber was "Wow, this guy is awesome!" I immediately could tell that he genuinely cares about people and wants to help them. He's conservative with his patients and takes very good care of them.

I worked primarly with Pam in Dr. Weber's office and found her to be very helpful, kind and supportive.

Dr. Weber is a strong advocate of any kind of exercise 7 days a week. It's very important for weightloss/weight maintanence and overall health.

I am looking forward to seeing Dr. Weber for my pre-op appt on 3/6/01.

I would rate Dr. Weber a 10! He has a rare combonation of having a great bedside manner and being very competent!!