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Cord Blood and Hindsight

Written by Sarah on June 19, 2013 · Leave a Comment

With my first child, I never heard of cord blood banking. It was around, but I was young and trying to figure out how I was going to do this whole parenting thing, and it wasn’t a blip on my radar. With my girls, this childbirth thing was old hat, although the larger family freaked me out and I was worried about finances and our small home and all the little details. In both cases I heard of cord blood, I researched it (kind of), and dismissed it. After all, my kids wouldn’t ever be sick. Denver was healthy as a horse (I thought), and my other two children would be the same.

Hindsight.

Now that I have two kids with Cystic Fibrosis, a very young niece with cancer, and have a much broader view of the world thanks to blogging, I wish I’d made that choice.

Through cord blood banking, you can collect and preserve potentially lifesaving stem cells, and doing so could one day save the life of your child or a blood relative. You can bank even more stem cells by collecting them from 2 usable sources of stem cell-rich blood: the umbilical cord and the placenta. This service is called Placental and Cord Blood Banking, and it’s available only from LifebankUSA. Whether you choose Placental and Cord Blood Banking or Cord Blood Banking alone, there are many important reasons to choose LifebankUSA.

There’s only one opportunity to save your baby’s stem cells for the future…

As an expectant parent, your baby’s health means everything. Right now, he or she is protected in the womb and will soon enter the world. There is a lot to think about and prepare for, but an invaluable step you can take when your child is born is to preserve his/her stem-cell rich cord and placenta blood The ability of stem cells to save lives via cord blood banking has proven successful for replacing abnormal or diseased cells, and treating life-threatening blood disorders such as leukemia, lymphoma, and myeloma. In fact, since 1988 stem cell transplants have been used to treat some 80 diseases. No, Cystic Fibrosis isn’t on that list – but I imagine one day it will be.

I’m done having children, fate and biology means my body is no longer able to have them, but if I could, I’d bank the blood. I recommend it to those I know debating it. Sure, the odds of illness might be small – but then as I’ve learned, you just never know.

Today, LifeBankUSA is having a contest, and you can win a SpaFinder Gift Card worth $200. Just head over to Facebook to enter the contest. It’s super easy!! (All those links, and the top image on the page will take you to the contest!)

And seriously, consider cord banking. It’s worth it.

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ABOUT LIFEBANKUSA

As the only company that offers cord blood, placenta blood and tissue banking — and the first to release placenta-derived stem cells for a successful transplant — New Jersey-based LifebankUSA is a technological leader that is pioneering key medical innovations in the field. Owned by the Celgene Corporation, a world-class biopharmaceutical company, LifebankUSA also operates a robust donation program and collects cells from anywhere in the US for use primarily in advancing medical research.

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*Disclaimer: This post was sponsored by LifebankUSA. I was paid for this post, but all opinions are my own heartfelt truth. I never take my children’s health for granted, and you can’t pay me to lie about it.

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Bass-Ackwards and Downside-Up

Written by Sarah on June 18, 2013 · Leave a Comment

Have you ever had one of those days?

Better yet, one of those weeks?

Everything is going along fine and then…

WHAM

You’re hit with a MAC truck.

Life flips on its head.

You lose track of days. (Seriously – WHAT is the date? I’m so confused)

Everything goes wrong.

Things break.

You get sick.

Your kids decide to mutiny.

*~*

You have?

Gee, I wouldn’t know what that’s like.

</end sarcasm>

*~*

I don’t know what day it is.

I thought today was June 11th.

Last week I thought it was June 3rd.

*~*

I’m sure I’ll figure it out.

Before summer is over.

Right?

Anyone?

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The Annual Day of Hellvaluation

Written by Sarah on June 13, 2013 · 1 Comment

It starts early.

Actually, the night before in a way.

As the teen is put on a fast, and we all go to bed early.

Because we have to leave at 7AM to get to the hospital at 8AM.

So the teen can drink that sickeningly sweet glucose concoction.You know the one, the same one we drank when pregnant.

And then we wait.

For two hours.

For more blood to be drawn.

Then the girl gets her blood drawn – which holy hell it’s like she’s being murdered.

Then it’s onto x-rays.

And functions.

And then we meet…

THE TEAM.

The social worker who hasn’t got much to say, but comes in every year. Makes sure we aren’t being killed by medicine costs. That we have all the ‘help’ we need.

The nutritionist that always tells us the kids are too skinny and to fatten them up. She gives us orders for calorie/fat boosting nutritional supplements.

The nurse that takes cultures and histories and makes sure all is clear.

The research associate that clues us in to new research projects we can partake in if we chose.

We break for lunch, and return and wait.

As our hospital is a teaching hospital we then see the Fellow. Who talks to us, examines both kids and heads out.

Then the doctor. Who examines both kids, goes over x-rays and future plans.

This year we had a change from the patter as the teen is being prepared for his own care. His exam was held in his own room where she went over the (still surprising to me) aspects of CF and how it could affect him and his future. The things no teenager wants to talk about in front of their parent…I mean EW.

It’s a full day.

Long.

Exhausting.

It ends with us grumpy.

Ready to get the heck out of there.

And grateful for another year.

It’s called a “birthday visit”.

A celebration of an anniversary i’d rather forget.

Kennedy’s is June 11th.

Denver’s is April 29th.

We meet them in the middle.

But in both cases, I’d rather forget that day.

The day we “knew” for sure.

Not celebrate it with a painful, long, exhausting day.

Although if we have to ‘celebrate’ such a ‘birthday’.

What better way than in misery?

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I Got Stalked by a Wookiee #ISMStarWars

Written by Sarah on June 11, 2013 · Leave a Comment

I’ve had a lot of awesome geeky nights – which I won’t get into here – but a couple weeks ago I got stalked by a Wookiee.

I don’t know why that wasn’t on my bucket list.

Except I never thought it would happen.

I was fortunate enough to go to the midnight opening party for the Star Wars®: Where Science Meets Imagination exhibit at the Indiana State Museum.

That meant being in the belly of the beast with fellow geeks, and a lot of them.

While there I got to have fun testing out some of the science stations. While building a moisture farm on Tatooine it began. While minding my own business, filming a video of what I was failing at, something touched my head. A drape of long fur covered my eyes.

Yes, I actually shrieked. But when I looked up and saw Tarrful above me, I laughed and got a bit giddy. Three more times the Wookiee found me and scared me, until I managed to get a hug with him (and then another with Chewbacca, because, of course).

While I can’t guarantee you’ll get stalked by a Wookie (or Darth Vader as my friend Heather was) – the exhibit itself is something to behold. There are three science stations where you can learn to build a droid (or learn that you suck at building droids like I did ~ahem~). You can build a mag-lev vehicle (out of legos!!). You can build a spaceport or a moisture farm on tatooine (unless you ignore directions like I did). You can even ride a hovercraft!

In between all the fan-friendly science games are real props and models from the movies. Among my favorites? Being able to look through the eyes of Vader:

Because seriously, how cool is that?

The exhibit is only $10 for museum members – or an additional $10 on top of your museum admission. The tickets are timed, and they let in 64 people every 15 minutes. You can stay as long as you like once in the exhibit, take all the pictures you want (I may have taken over 500-many of which I’m still editing) – just no flash.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t tell you that for another $5 you can go into the cockpit of the Milennium Falcon and take a ride through space (which is also awesome).

There is so much to see, that I’ve spent almost 3 hours combined in 2 visits and could spend another full day there without feeling like I’d seen everything. Scattered throughout the next few weeks I’ll be giving you more posts that go more in depth o the offered fun at the exhibit, from the displays to the science fun. I have to do it a little at a time – there is so much to offer!

For now I’ll leave you with a few pictures from the amazing exhibits…and the promise of many more pictures to come: