Despite the miracle of the transplant, the next few years held more than its fair share of medical issues to deal with. There is the constant battle against high blood pressure – one of the side effects of the medication is high blood pressure, which is unfortunate, because high blood pressure takes its toll on the kidneys. There was the basil cell carcinoma – a side effect of one of the medications is sensitivity of your skin to sunlight. There was the arrhythmia (rapid heart beat) – which might be completely unrelated.
Post-transplant also seemed to present difficulties in our attempts to have more children. In the first five years after the transplant, Jeanne twice had to go in for outpatient DNC surgery following miscarriages. But then, in July of 2003, we learned Jeanne was pregnant again. I recall Jeanne calling me up at work after her first sonogram saying she had some news from her doctor’s appointment and asking me when I would get home from work. I asked her, “Good news or bad news?” to which she cryptically responded “It depends” and said she would share the news with me when I got home. Of course, I was rather unproductive the rest of the afternoon as I wondered what kind of news she could have to which “It depends” would be an appropriate response. Somewhere along the way, the thought struck me: Are we having twins?!?!?! Sure enough, when I got home, Jeanne showed me the sonogram confirming my suspicion.
As time passed and the news sunk in, the appropriateness of the “It depends” response became very clear. While on the one hand, I was ecstatic that Jeanne was pregnant, I was very concerned that two babies instead of one made it even more unlikely that the pregnancy would be a success. So, the term “mixed feelings” was very much in play here – although I think the mix here was happiness and anxiety.
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