cord blood this time?

Lots of people have been wondering if we are planning on banking the baby's cord blood stem cells this time. There are many factors affecting our decision, but the short answer is no, I don't think we will be doing it this time. We have spoken to several people since we banked Josiah's cord blood, and the verdict is still mixed and very confusing. Basically, there is just not much known yet about the science behind how stem cells work, and how beneficial, if at all, they are.

There are parents who are absolutely convinced that stem cells are miracle-workers, and seem very convincing. James' neuro-surgeon in SF seems to believe that a sibling's stem cells are unlikely to be beneficial for him, but that if we had banked his own cord blood, that would have been a different story.. Well, we didn't. So that doesn't help... He said that "graft versus host disease" can become an issue when the cells are not your own.

I don't completely understand all of it, and Seth is EXTREMELY skeptical. The truth is that I don't have the time or the energy to raise the funds to bank the cord blood this time (it costs over $2000), and since Seth is not really into it, that makes me even more unmotivated to do it. BUT, I am torn... because I would hate to regret not doing it later, if it did turn out that it would have been a good treatment option for James. We just have no way of knowing at this point.

So, that's the story on that!