We had another appointment with the doctor this week. I'm 32 weeks and have been going every-other-week. We've been taking Charles with us which hasn't been too bad. At least most of our waiting has been in the exam room where he's contained. Russell is great about being on "Charles Patrol" which means keeping him entertained and away from drawers, cupboards, trash cans, and items marked "bio hazard." I'm saving any babysitting favors for later on down the road when I get checked every week.
I've been wanting to donate cord blood ever since I was pregnant with Charles, but couldn't find a place that took donations, only banks where you can have it stored for later use. In all honesty, storing cord blood is a total scam. It costs a fortune to register not to mention hefty monthly or yearly fees. All this just in case you might need it. The statistics I've read say there's a slim chance anyone in your family will ever use the blood you've stored. Sure, there's that small percentage that benefit but the rest of the people using the service are wasting both money and a fluid that could help others.
Anyway...I found a place that collects cord blood to use both in research and in transplanting/injecting stem cells to treat people with certain diseases. I was thrilled! It took a combination of phone calls and Internet searches to discover this resource but it's exciting to know we could be helping someone else.
My doctor actually seemed quite pleased that I'd found a place that collects cord blood donations and signed all the necessary paperwork. Now I'm just waiting on a phone call from the hospital to see if they will charge for drawing my blood. Of course no one else has requested this service and what complicates matters is that I will come with all the collection tubes, all they have to do is stick me and collect the blood. It won't even go to their lab for testing. I predict it will take an act of congress to discover if they will charge us for this service. At least I was able to get the name and phone number of someone in the Business Office who seemed helpful. I'll definitely file that away for future use as well!
What did the doctor say? I think I weigh the same as two weeks ago. The nurse never said what my blood pressure was, but usually it's about 90-120/60-70 (I know several people who'd kill for blood pressure that good). The heart beat was 155, which is higher than it has been at other appointments. Usually it's around 150. My headaches and difficulty breathing are all normal and there's nothing shy of having the baby that will relieve those symptoms. She told me she'd see me in two weeks and "good luck breathing!"
1 comment:
I am glad that you were able to find some place to take it. The hospital that we had Elijah takes the cord blood for free and banks it. You just have to let them know that you want to do it. I thought that was wonderful. You want to know something sad? We went to the hospital saying we cant forget to tell them that we want to do that (because they told us that we had to tell them when we actually went in to have the baby and not before) but when we got there I completely forgot...even though it was our intention the WHOLE pregnancy. I felt pretty bad because I knew that it could help somebody.
Glad you are doing well and hope that you have no more issues with breathing. :o)
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