Simply put... life can be crazy!

Crazy almost seems to be an understatement.  Just when you think you've got control of life and things are going great, life whispers "ha ha, that's what you think" into your ear and turns your world upside down, and then upside down again.  

Of course we knew that the arrival of our third child would likely change our routine and make life a bit crazier.  We still have yet to experience this pleasure in roughly 4 weeks (or less).  But Tim's diagnosis of lymphoma/chronic lymphocytic leukemia has left us dumb-founded and filled with emotions.  For those of you who have not yet heard, the diagnosis came about three weeks ago after Tim had a lymph node removed from his neck.  Ironically, he probably would not have had the node removed since a previous needle biopsy came back negative.  He decided to have the node removed because he was already scheduled for surgery to repair a deviated septum.  So that's basically where his/our journey into the next chapter of our lives begins.  I'll call it that because I've always viewed my life as being in chapters.  You know, Chapter 1 - Childhood, Chapter 2 - Self Discovery (Teenage/College Years) and so on.

There is much to be written about what life has been like for our family over the last couple of weeks.  While I don't want this blog to focus on Tim's cancer, I will provide an update from my perspective from time to time.  Tim has made mention of the possibility of starting a blog himself, and so I'll post a link to that once he's up to getting that started.  Some recent activities include a trip to NYC to meet with a specialist at the Weill-Cornell Medical Center.  We were accompanied by my sister and mom to help out with the kids (a HUGE THANK YOU!) while Tim and I met with the doctor.  The kids really enjoyed the train ride down and after the appointment we took a taxi to the NY Museum of Natural History.  Alex and Emily both wanted to know immediately when we can go down to NYC again!  

One aspect that I've been working diligently on is getting information about Cord Blood banking and if/how it may benefit us/Tim in the future.  It turns out that the list of diseases regularly treated with stem cells from cord blood includes Tim's cancer.  Whether our baby's cord blood will be a match for Tim is yet to be discovered but it's worth saving if there's a chance.  The first problem I discovered was that the cost is rather high (although we agreed we would bank the cord blood regardless of the cost at this point because of it's potential benefits). Most companies charge roughly $2100 for processing the blood and then a $125/yr. fee is charged for storage.  After some info-hunting I discovered that there are federal programs designed to provide financial support for pregnant mothers that want to bank their baby's cord blood to be designated for use for a sibling or other relative with a disease that's treated with stem cells.  My first phone calls into the federal programs were unsuccessful, however, I came across a list of family banks that offer "charity" programs similar to the federal programs.  The first family bank I called was the Cord Blood Registry, which, as I understand, is a cord blood bank that has been banking cord blood for one of the longest amounts of time comparatively.  The representative that I spoke with was friendly and, although I felt as though I was listening to a sales pitch at times, I agreed to enroll with the company for family/private banking with the intent of applying for the "Designated Transplant Program".  I was sent the application for the program via email within minutes of talking with the rep and had all of the paperwork completed (by us and Tim's oncologist) within a week.  On Tuesday of last week I faxed the paperwork to the rep at CBR and asked that he put a "rush" on it since our baby is due in just a few short weeks.  I was pleasantly surprised when I received a phone call the following morning from my rep stating that our application was approved and that we would only be charged $150 for the shipping of the blood to their facility on AZ when the baby arrives!  I've had my cord blood collection kit packed in my hospital bag for a week now and informed my OB & midwives about our choice to bank the cord blood.

If you want more info about cord blood banking, you can visit CBR's website: http://www.cordblood.com/