Dear Dr. Ornstein, I would take this belated opportunity to thank you for your diligence and excellent work you performed on my partial nephrectomy some 8 months ago. I am pleased to inform that my one partial kidney is performing well, no dialysis etc and my creatin count is hovering around 1.3. I have lost a lot more weight since we met to my prior gastric bypass and consequently my health, despite the loss of one and a partial kidneys, is remarkably good, for which I greatly appreciate your surgical expertise.

When you hear the words "YOU HAVE CANCER" and in my case it was prostate cancer, fear and anxiety set in immediately. You then begin to move forward and how fortunate to have Dr. David Ornstein and his staff.

Our first contact with Dr. Ornstein's office was with Griselda. From the start , Griselda showed professionalism and compassion. She is very efficient at her job.

Our first meeting with Dr. Ornstein gave us a sigh of relief because he eludes confidence as well as a positive attitude concerning the "ROBOTIC PROSTATECTOMY" procedure and the overall outcome including the recovery process.

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“I would like to share this story hoping it will help others. I remember my father in 1998 lying in Hope Hospice telling me to make sure I get a regular PSA. At the age of 67, he passed away from prostate cancer and at that time I was 43 years old.  I took my father’s advice and had my PSA checked. I did have a low PSA level, however it increased as time went on. Then at the age of 54, my PSA level hit the top awareness number of 4.0. I was taking Avodart plus Flomax when my PSA was 2.0, but when taking Avodart your number has to be doubled which made mine 4.0. My regular urologist suggested a prostate biopsy which turned out to be positive for prostate cancer.

The biopsy was a twelve needle biopsy in which two needles came back positive with a Gleason Score of 6 + 6. My regular urologist suggested I have a bone scan to make sure the cancer had not spread out of the prostate. Thank God and with my Dad’s prior advice it has not spread. I caught it in time. My urologist then wanted to speak with my wife and I about our different options. After a 45 minute conference, we came to the conclusion that Robotic Surgery was the way to go.

The urologist referred me to Dr. David K. Ornstein. During the first week of December 2009, I had my consultation with Dr. Ornstein.  From the moment we met, I felt I was in great hands. He truly cares about his patients and wants to help them.  While looking over my chart, he assured me that my cancer level was low but he was very confident that I was a perfect candidate for Robotic Surgery.  Dr. Ornstein was up-front about everything.  He let me know that after the surgery I would have a catheter for seven (7) days.  During recovery after the surgery, I would probably have to wear small pads in my underwear for approximately (1) month after the catheter was removed.  Of course, he explained that each individual is different.  I am a healthy individual who enjoys golfing and fishing.  I also work out with weights at the gym along with a cardio program.  After surgery, I was on the treadmill (10) days later along with lifting very light weights.  I took things very easy for a few weeks.

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Dear Dr Ornstein, I feel very fortunate that I was able to have you perform the Robotic prostate surgery on me last April. After 6 months I am feeling quite well and had no incontinence whatsoever since removal of the Catheter one week after the procedure. The erection issue is finally (my impatience) resolving and the pump prescribed by Dr. Dash at my last post-op was quite a help. I continue to improve on that issue and am now quite optimistic. The really important thing is I have now had two 0 PSA tests.

By December 2004, my PSA had gone up significantly - jumping from 3.5 to 4.2 to 6.4 over about a year-and-a-half. This led to a biopsy, which in turn confirmed that at 59 years of age, I had prostate cancer. With Gleason scores of 4+3 and 3+3 and no detectable tumor, I was a stage "T1c" according to the urologist. I wasn't necessarily shocked - in fact, I half expected this one day because it ran in the family. Yet, I knew I had to do something about it.

I spent the next few days reading and researching everything I could find to determine my treatment options. I even called one of my brothers with some physician friends in Phoenix to see what they might recommend. Everything seemed to lead my wife and I to one obvious conclusion. Non-surgical options seemed only to delay the inevitable. Don't fool around with it - get it cut out. Laproscopic surgery seemed the least invasive, the safest at avoiding incontinence and impotency issues, and I would be able to return to daily activities sooner.

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Unlike most people I was not scared by the words “prostate cancer” because the biopsy indicated (erroneously as it turned out) that the cancerous cells were few and limited to one area of my gland. Also, I read that survival rates are very high when prostate cancer is diagnosed early. However, I was afraid of the operation because of my very low tolerance to pain. On meeting Dr. David K. Ornstein I did not hesitate to talk about my fears. He assured me that the prostatectomy would be painless and that there would be no post-operation pain. I did not believe him (or any other physician who promises that there will be no pain), but listened attentively to his description of the procedure.

Dr. Ornstein’s estimate was that the operation (with the Da Vinci Robot) would take three hours. In giving his estimate Dr. Ornstein was not aware of problems which would be caused by internal scars caused by an emergency appendectomy I underwent in the Netherlands in 1974. The operation required four hours due to the scars and the fact that the cancer was more widely spread than indicated by the biopsy.

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Dear Dr. Ornstein,

You will be very missed here in Orange County. Thank you again for all your care. You are truly an amazing doctor and I will always remember your act of kindness making the time to come to Universal Care to handle my surgery. I told so many people about it.  You were an answer to all our prayers. May God bless you in your new journey in and I know you will save lots of lives there.

Forever grateful.