Dan's brother Greg and sister-in-law Bonnie sent us an email a while ago in regards to the cord bank they used for both of their boys. It's amazing how much less expensive it was to bank cord blood 9 years ago. They use a place called Cryo Cell and bank only the cord blood for 18 years. The options are much better these days.
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| How cute…seriously? |
We wanted to know all of our options, so I did some research on Cryo Cell and two other banking places. These were my finding:
- Four banking options - (1) Cord Blood (2) Cord Blood and Cord Tissue (3) Cord Blood and C'elle (menstral blood - I'll explain further in a bit) (4) Cord Blood, Cord Tissue, and Celle
- Bank for 21 years
- Cryo Cell is in Florida
- Been around the longest of all cord blood banking companies (1992)
- Has the best price out of the three banking companies if doing more than just banking the cord blood
- Has a 12 month payment plan for the first year - interest free (the first year is more expensive due to shipping, testing, and storage)
- Two banking options - (1) Cord Blood (2) Cord Blood and Cord Tissue
- Bank for 18 years
- CBR is in California
- Been around since 1999
- Has a special collection bag
- Two banking options - (1) Cord Blood (2) Cord Blood and Cord Tissue
- Bank for 20 years or 25 years
- Viacord is in Ohio
- Been around since 1993
- Is the most expensive out of the three banking companies if doing more than just banking the cord blood
We chose to go with Cryo Cell. We liked the idea of banking not only the cord blood and cord tissue, but also my menstrual blood. Sounds really gross, I know. Here are the facts:
Cord Blood:
- non-Hodgkin's lymphoma
- leukemia
- sickle cell disease
- severe anemia's
- severe combined immunodeficiency
- Experimentation for expanded uses of stem cells holds great promise. Current research is being conducted on the use of stem cells for the treatment of cardiac and neurological diseases, to name a few
Cord Tissue:
- Stem cells from cord tissue have demonstrated the power to heal spinal cord, brain, and cartilage injuries in laboratory studies.
- Exciting new research shows that menstrual fluid contains self-renewing stem cells. Stem cells from menstrual blood may potentially be utilized in the future to treat a host of life-threatening and debilitating medical conditions such as diabetes, stroke and heart disease, as well as neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's, osteoporosis and spinal cord injury, just to name a few.
- Any woman, any age (who has a menstrual cycle) can utilize C'elle.
OK, now you know all the reasons we chose to do the three options through Cryo Cell. With all that "insurance" for about $29 per month, why wouldn't we take every opportunity to utilize what may one day save our child's life and possibly our own?
Now to the strange and some-what funny part of the whole screening test. Well, I don't know if they were screening me, but the questions that I had to answer were a bit odd.
Here are just a few of those wacky questions:
- Have you in the past 5 years received compensation for sex?
- Have you in the past 12 months had intimate contact with a male who has ever had sexual contact with another male?
Oh God I hope not! I have nothing against same sex, sex, but I really don't want to be married to a guy who has had it. I should be the only one in the relationship who has ever slept with a guy! And luckily for me, I am.
- In the past 3 years have you been outside the United States or Canada?
Not sure what this has to do with collecting our baby's cord blood, but it was the only question out of about 20 that I answered "yes" to. In 2009 Dan and I went to Ireland and Wales for our honeymoon.
So that's it. We ordered our kit. Now we just have to wait about three and a half months until Lily arrives and hope we never have to use it.
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