Cord Blood Banking???

I'm a Hodgkins lymphoma survivor - 8 yrs. I was told my cancer was stress related and environmental and not genetic. But 4 generations on my dad's side have passed away with cancers - I'm the longest living survivor, passing up two aunts that died of breast cancer in year 7. No one can tell me that unless I educate myself and do what I learn that my kids will be safe.

We did not bank my 3 yr old daughters due to cost. With our son, my in-laws and parents took out two separate loans to help us save his cord blood. I think it was approx $1800 for initial costs and is $125 per year. They split the initial, and we pay the yearly fee.

We used CBR because they are the largest,most successful bank. Our doctor thought they did a much better job on the paperwork/collection end, too. They called several times to answer questions, etc. The collection itself was very uneventful - they simply take a bag or two of the cord blood, a sample vial for testing, put it all in a box, match up your numbers with the numbers on the box. Then a guy comes by within so many hours to get it curried to the bank.

Since leukemia treatment is the #1 use for cord blood (they say more effective than bone marrow transplant), and since leukemia is the most likely relapse for me along with breast cancer, if I have a relapse, we think it is worth the cost. (how's that for a run-on sentence!)

Sounds like we would have a lot in common. I'd love to meet you. Not too many of us have post cancer concerns with children in the picture. Thank God they are only concerns, right? I am a part of a circle of moms through facebook for cancer survivors dealing with mommy issues if you'd like to join us for more opinions!

write back if you are interested
Not an easy choice, hedging bets on a future that may or may not happen. I pray you are at peace with your decision.
L.

Hi B.

I know this is a tough decision, especially when the financial aspect is involved. I did chose to bank the cord blood for my son (who is now 10 months old). We are lucky enough to have a family full of doctors (uncles, brothers and sisters) and here are a few things they told us to consider

How experienced is your OB or midwife in doing the collection. It does take a bit of expertise, and a poor collectin leading to a low cell count would not be very useful.
Do you have any history of parkinson's, CBGD, MS or other neuro disorders within your family
Do you have any history of diabetes or any other endochro disease (graves disease, hypo thryroid, etc)within your family

If your OB has experience, and the answer to any of the other questions is yes, then cord blood banking could be a really good idea. The advances in stem cell research in these areas is astounding and will probably come to a treatment format in the near future. As far as the other areas of research (cancer, spinal cord injuries, etc...there is also a great deal of reasearch, but the time frames for treatment uses have a much longer time frame)

I hope passing on the information we got it helpful to you in your decision

D.

We didn't with my first but did it for my second. We hare having our 3rd and will do it again. Although it is expensive, I just think about how if my child was sick and the cord blood would help I would kick myself for not doing it! Think of it as an insurance plan. The research and usages for cord blood are still in the beginning stages but my doc is confident that in the future cord blood will be able to help with so many things! If my child was sick, I would do anything to help them, so why not do something proactive! Good Luck!

We didn't with our first but we did bank our cord band with our second child. We broke at the time but I really felt like it was the last chance for our family to have this precious resource. We did a payment plan and just made it work....and I'm glad we did for peace of mind.

We banked for all 3 of our daughters with CBR. My OB was friends with the man who started it (we lived in Tucson and it's in AZ) and she highly recommended it. I hope we'll never need it, but I'm glad we did it. CBR seems to be a really good company with several good outcomes. They will let you pay over a year with no interest if you need to.

If you don't have the money to do it then you don't and you shouldn't feel guilty about it. Good luck with whatever you decide.

We banked with CBR with my first child b/c my niece had Leukemia at 7 1/2 months old and when you have someone close to you go through that you want to be prepared...she went thru 2 and half years of chemo. Luckily and by the grace of God she is a healthy, active 15 year old now. We did not bank again with my son which I regret. There is a credit company called CARE CREDIT that is for medical things so you might look into them. I'd also look into a low interest credit card perhaps that you ONLY put the cost of the cord on and then pay it off over the course of 6 or however months if that would help. The annual fee is only $125 so that isn't too bad it is just the upfront cost. In the long run I feel much safer having it even if I only have it for one child b/c hopefully they could both use it if needed. It is a very personal decision but if money is the only thing keeping you from saying yes I would try to find a payment plan with no interest.