GGF, the whole CVS thing only took a couple of minutes. The consultant gave me a local anasthetic via a needle through my abdomen. Then straight after put another needle in and extracted the cells.
It was uncomfortable, but not painful. When the second needle went in I could feel the uterus wall being pushed and bending, and then sort of popping as the needle went through IYSWIM. For me it was more the thought of what was happening than the physical feeling, but I am like that about blood tests too. All the time I could see the baby on the scan screen , and see the needle coming in too, which was weird but reassuring too. The consultant I had was lovely.
Immediately afterwards I felt cramping period pains, which is normal. They continued for about half an hour but I think some people get them for longer.
I had to sign a waiver saying I understood about the 1% miscarriage rate. But my consultant had never had a mc and I've read that it has a lot to do with the skill of the doctor involved and that you should make sure you go to a doctor who does at least x (can't remember the number but I have 66? in my head for some reason) p.a. I'm sure if yours is an NHS doc this would be the case as this must be a pretty standard procedure for them.
I had it done at 12 weeks and I must say, for me, that was the right choice as my understanding of amnio is that it is usually done at 20 weeks and I knew by then I would be able to feel the baby moving etc and it would all be more distressing.
I got the results back two days later, although that may have been faster than the NHS as it was done privately.
Thinking of you, and I really hope you make the best choice for you and get good news too. Let me know if I missed out anything you wanted to know.