NORFOLK, Va. — I've shared my prostate cancer journey over the past few months, but in this story, I'm talking about a different condition: an enlarged prostate. At Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, there's a procedure that has dramatically changed the life of one local man.
"I... I got my life back," said Ken Outlaw from Yorktown. "All those things that I'd been encountering beforehand, it was like each day was a better day. Each day was a great day!"
Ken can say that now, but it was a completely different before he had the procedure. He said his enlarged prostate condition was very disruptive and his life of quality was terrible — something his wife Patty noticed as well.
"[He'd say,] 'I gotta go.' And he'd jump and run to the restroom and he'd come back. And he was doing it so frequently," said Patty Outlaw.
Watch extended interview: Yorktown man shares experience receiving prostate artery embolization procedure
Ken was dealing with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), better known as an enlarged prostate. Approximately 50% of men 65 and older will have it and up to 20% of those men will require surgical treatment.
I asked Dr. Adam Lustig, an interventional radiologist who practices at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, what some of the first symptoms are of an enlarged prostate.
"Frequency going to the bathroom a lot, having to have to go to the bathroom urgently, like, 'I have to go right now. Stop everything, go to the bathroom now,'" said Dr. Lustig.
Watch related coverage: News 3 anchor Kurt Williams returns to work following prostate cancer surgery
Because of where the prostate is located, when it keeps growing and becomes enlarged, it can restrict or, for some, cut off your urine flow.
"When you can't fully empty your bladder, it fills up very quickly in a short period of time, makes you have to go to the bathroom again. So it's that incomplete emptying because the bladder has to work so hard to push through this enlarged prostate. It can't get the urine through the channel," Dr. Lustig explained.
Ken says this impacted him in many ways.
"You come home and you're angry about things, you don't know why you're angry—you do know why— because there are things not working the way they're supposed to," said Ken.
Watch related coverage: Should some men have different prostate cancer screening guidelines?
Ken, who served in the Marines for more than two decades, has been trying to find a solution since 2017.
"We would have to go make multiple visits to the doctor's office because something wasn't right," said Ken.
It was difficult for his wife to witness.
"After the first surgery was when I got concerned, especially because he was having all the problems afterward and he had to keep going back and going back," said Patty Outlaw.
Patty had had enough. She recalls, "I said this is going to get fixed one way or the other."
At one of his many appointments, she let her feelings be known, Ken says.
"She took over the entire conversation. My wife just said, 'I'm talking. His quality of life is terrible... terrible. We can't go to a movie together, we can't go to dinner, we can't do anything as a family,'" said Ken.
Ken's urologist mentioned there is a new procedure involving a new doctor, Dr. Adam Lustig, who helped Ken reclaim his life.
"Prostate artery embolization is a way to shrink the prostate. So we go into the arteries with one little needle stick in the groin... and we find the prostate arteries. Then, we inject these little tiny particles which kinda look like grains of sand and we inject those in the prostate arteries. That will, over time, block the blood flow and cause the prostate to shrink," explained Dr. Lustig.
Watch related coverage: Prostate cancer survivor discusses current screening guidelines and raising awareness
Dr. Lustig says this treatment might be more attractive for men dealing with an enlarged prostate because some of the other procedures are more invasive.
Ken definitely agrees with that, saying, "You don't feel the procedure happening. It's as painless as possible. I was wondering what was going on. I was sitting there wondering, is anything going on?"
It didn't take long for Ken to notice the improvement.
"I knew a few days afterward, you could just begin to tell the difference," said Ken.
Dr. Lustig says it really is life-changing.
"I've had grown men cry in my follow-up clinic visits because they're not beholden to the bathroom anymore. They can go travel, they can go shopping, they don't have to always know where the toilet is," said Dr. Lustig.
Ken says it's made a huge difference, "It's just—I was just like wow! I don't have to worry about this. My life is normal!"
His wife Patty has noticed changes too.
"Well, you start to see the anger and the stress he was under, it starts to dissipate. So you can go back to that relationship you had before all of that happened and you know it's good to be in that place," she said.
Ken says he's eager to spread the word about this procedure.
"Why shouldn't I say something so that other men can stop dealing with this and do something about the thing that's disrupting their life?" he said.
Men, if this story resonated with you and you want more information about the procedure, contact the Interventional Radiology Clinic at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital. More information is here.
