Help Ryan Jahnke Defeat DVTs

Hello friends and family,

Due to the extensive interest from all of you, we decided to create a platform to share Ryan's story and updates with you all in one place.  

A couple of weeks before Thanksgiving, Ryan believed that he had pulled a muscle in his back, and nurtured it as such.  However, after a few weeks with little to no change, he planned to visit a chiropractor, and called mom (Kathy) to inform her of his plans. He was unable to go any sooner as he was stranded in his apartment due to the excessive snowfall.  When Mom heard his symptoms, she decided it would be best for Ryan to get to a doctor instead.  Due to the wonderful, snowy Duluth weather, Ryan had reservations about the clinic being open, and opted to visit urgent care instead.  The physician that was able to see him, immediately sent him to the emergency room due to a weakened pulse in the femoral artery and concerns for potential blood clot.    

Following an ultrasound and CT scan in the emergency room, it was determined that Ryan had developed a large blood clot in his right leg, with concern that the blood clot had extended into the inferior vena cava (IVC) (the vein that returns blood to the heart).  He was admitted to the hospital, and was prescribed Heparin (a blood thinner) in the hopes that it would assist in breaking up the clot; if this course of action didn't prove fruitful, the team of assembled radiologists planned on a potential procedure to mechanically remove the clots.  After the night in the hospital, it was determined that the large clot in Ryan's IVC would need to be removed mechanically-however, this would come with some caveats.  

For those of you that don't know,  Ryan was an extreme premie, entering the world at just 24.5 weeks at 1 lb 13 oz.  Because of this, Ryan has an unusually narrow IVC, which was not known until they detected it on the CT scan.  In order to increase blood flow to Ryan's heart, the team of radiologists would have to mechanically remove the large blood clot through a vein in the back of Ryan's knee, and place a stent to widen the IVC in the perineal area.  

This procedure was performed on Wednesday, December 4th, and went smoothly, but Ryan's recovery was anything but smooth.  Ryan was in extreme pain for many hours following the surgery, requiring large amounts of pain medication just so he could relax.  In just twenty-four short hours, Ryan was feeling much better, and was sent home to continue recovering in his own bed.  Although he was presumed to recover from the procedure, Ryan would have a lifetime of blood-thinners to prevent this from happening again.  

Unfortunately, this would not prove to be the end of our journey.  On Sunday, December 8th, Ryan began to feel greater than usual pain in his right lower calf and was feeling short of breath.  After calling the nurse line at Essentia, it was determined that he would need to return to the emergency room.  Following an ultrasound and CT scan, they found that there were residual clots in Ryan's calf that weren't cleared from the initial procedure-he was admitted to the hospital once again.

The next morning, our awesome team of radiologists at Essentia decided that the best course of action would be to perform another venogram (sending contrast dye up a vein to assess presence of clots) to see what the plan of attack would be.  After doing this, they placed a catheter in Ryan's right calf to drip TPA (a clot busting agent given to stroke patients) directly into the clot.  After 24 hours of a TPA drip in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit (or Sick-U as we like to say), Ryan would return to surgery to assess what the next step would be.  

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So here we sit.  As I (Hannah, Ryan's sister) write this, Ryan is in the operating room with an excellent group of hands working to find out if the treatment worked.  If all is well, they will remove the catheter, and Ryan will go into recovery.  We are praying this is the case, and we invite you to pray with us.  

With all medical emergencies, there is a significant cost involved, but the most pressing one at the moment is Ryan's situation.  Ryan has already missed a significant amount of work, and will likely need a couple more weeks to recover.  Although it seems like our world has stopped, unfortunately, the world goes on without us, and so do bills.  We ask, if you feel compelled, to donate to Ryan to help him with essential costs of living in the upcoming weeks/months.  If you are unable to donate, we ask that you please say a prayer for Ryan's quick and safe recovery.  I will work to keep the website updated with Ryan's condition-we appreciate all of your concerns, contacts, and love that has been expressed to our family in the past couple of  weeks.  We love ALL of you!