Today I went for my first NHS scan, at 12 weeks and 5 days. I had been feeling cautiously optimistic as we had a private scan at 9 weeks which showed that the baby was growing as expected and had a strong heartbeat. I'm 38 and this is my first and much longed-for pregnancy - after weeks of nausea, dizziness and exhaustion I had finally started to feel human again and now we are faced with the news that the nuchal translucency measurement at the back of the baby's neck is so high it that indicates an 85% risk of chromosomal abnormalities (Downs Syndrome, Edwards Syndrome, Patau's Syndrome and Turner's Syndrome) - an average measurement is apparently 2mm and anything over 3.5mm is considered extremely worrying, so basically my result is through the roof.
Needless to say, I feel like my heart has been ripped out. The midwife took a blood sample today and I now have to play an agonising waiting game until Friday or perhaps even Monday until I know whether I need to go for a CVS or not (where they insert a needle into the placenta and take a sample to determine the result, which in itself carries a risk of miscarriage)
Has anyone else experienced this? Sorry if I don't sound particularly coherent right now, my head's all over the place and I could really do with some hand holding x