Yeah, I'm alive (barely). Someday I'll tell you about it, but for now, here's a pitch.
I'm
not sure how many of my friends may be expecting (or are planning on
it), but for any of you who are, here's a shout out for banking your
baby's cord blood.
I banked my daughter Lily's, never thinking
that ANYTHING could POSSIBLY happen where I might need it. I remember
thinking it was more money than I wanted to spend on a gamble, but then
again, Steve was in grad school--meaning that it must not have been TOO
much money, especially considering how sure I was that I'd never, ever
need it. Things might go wrong for other people, but they always seemed
to work out for me. Right?
Heh.
This is what I have learned since then: SH*T ALWAYS HAPPENS.
Life is long and families have a lot of people in them. Tons of the
time, stuff is boring and happy and free from problems. But inevitably,
stuff goes wrong. And it doesn't matter who you are or how smoothly your
life has gone thus far, stuff still happens.
So, yeah. I am
really grateful I made the decision to bank Lil's blood even though I
was super naive at the time. (I was 25 and thought I was totally mature
and wise and crap. Hahahaha!)
In case you're wondering what on
earth you can do with cord blood: Blood from a neonate's umbilical cord
is rich with stem cells. Stem cell therapies are already in use for
cancer (which, for some strange reason, I happen to care a lot about...
hmm...), blood diseases, auto-immune diseases, and certain genetic
diseases. Future research may find therapies for diseases like
Parkinson's (another one that hits close to home), Alzheimer's, MS, and
many others.
Umbilical blood also has the added plus of
letting you avoid the firestrom (not a typo) of controversy that goes
with embryonic stem cell extraction. Or to use an equation since I
haven't done that forever:
UCB = (all the benefit) - (that particular stress)
If you'd like more information, here's a link.
Or you can call 1-800-747-3319. Mention code MJL8 and either you or I will get some kind of reward. (They weren't entirely clear about that.)
You may never need the blood (here's
to hoping you DON'T!) but it's really comforting to have it just in
case. I think of it as part of my "emergency preparedness" because,
turns out, cataclysmic disasters come in all kinds of forms. Some
extremely personal.
You can message me if you have any questions or reservations or whatever. I'm not an expert, but I'll tell you whatever I know!
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