DFW Trip & Cheer Competition
10 months ago
Monday, January 5, 2009
Cordblood Banking
Chris and I made the decision to do cord blood banking today. After much research and thinking we decided to go with Viacord. I was very impressed with their customer service. The people all were very nice and spent as much time with me as I needed. I didn't feel like I was being rushed off the phone. We decided to go with a Private bank for many reasons. Number one is that we have a bank with genetically matched stem cells that if heaven forbid one of our family gets sick we will be able to use these banked cells to cure what ever diseases may come our way. There has been great success with curing leukemia and other forms of cancer with these type of Stem Cells. I hope like heck we never have to use this and that the money we spent will go to waist. This at least gives me the piece of mind that I've done everything possible to protect my little guy against the worst case scenario.
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Interesting. Brian and I were just discussing this. But, we decided not to bank it we are going to donate it.
We looked into the donation as well. A friend of ours did it in Dallas. We decided to do the private banking becasue if somthing were to happen and we did the donation, you still have the same odd at locating stemcells that match as you would trying to find a bone marrow transplant donor. They look in the city where you banked first and in SA the odds of us finding a donor is low here. I don't know I guess I'm just paranoid and didn't want to have to go through all that if we didn't have to. I would assume in Houston or Dallas with a lot bigger population in the area that you would have a better chance of finding a match at a later time if you donated. A friend of mine tried to donate in SA... they never came to get the same or the same wasn't take or somthing since it was the blood bank that was doing it so they didn't even get the chance to get the vochure so if you really want to just make sure to stay on top of your Dr. So they take the collection and stuff. Again at a Hospital in Houston it may be more common and the proccess be a little smoother. With the Private banking we have a kit that the Dr. gets and already has versus having some one from the hospital try to get the kit from the blood bank etc.
I don't know if that makes any sense or not. Just random ramblings of a crazy pregnant woman. :)
Seems like CBR and Viacord are the frontrunners. We are planning to go with CBR because they have more experience.
Just for sake of comparison, here's the price breakdown for CBR...
$1625 one-time collection & processing fee
(after using $250 coupon from
http://www.cord-blood-banking-coupon.com )
$150 courier fee
$125 first year storage fee
For comparison's sake, can you share what was your final price for Viacord?
Thanks.
Our hospital associates with MD Anderson Cord Blood Bank. So they already have people on premises to collect. (They do work with private banking too of course as my hospital.) Very easy process, I just have to show that I am healthy enough to do it. Apparently mine is iffy since I have GD.
About the banking for yourselves. Just some things I've researched and learned at the dr. Most cord blood cannot be used for the child it came from since usually the disease was present (even if not noticeable) at the time the blood was taken from the cord. Thus making it unable to treat the disease. And although I do not remember the statistic the odds of someone in your family needing or matching that cord blood was really really low.
Not trying to change your mind. Just letting you know what we've learned. And how we came to our decision. :) Hope you enjoyed your class tonight! I will call you after the dr. tomorrow.
Sorry it took me so long to post back... I forgot to click the email follow up comments so I ment to check back but life got crazy. Our final price at Viacord was $1695. That price included processing / testing / courier / 1st years storage. That was with a $500 texas resident discount. That discount expires on Jan 16th.
I looked at a CBR too and ended up doing the Viacord becuase I knew some one else that did Viacord.
I don't know that we'll ever use it or not but at least its there for the family or kid number 2 or who knows :) Thanks!
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