oh Teresa I'm so sorry - here is some hope for you

First of all, I am SO sorry to hear you are going through this - I know how terrifying it is. Here's my story, I'm hoping it will offer you some comfort. I finally got pg with my first IVF in October of 2006 when I was 35. That December we did the first trimester bloodwork and nuchal test and were hit with some horrible news: 1 in 3 chance of chromosomal abnormalities. We met with a genetic counselor and the news was grim. After years of trying to get pregnant, I did not know what to do. We cried together a lot. I had a good friend at the time who was a nurse and she had worked for a perinatologist here in Seattle who is apparently one of the best in the country. He's been doing CVS procedures for 30 years or something and his numbers were great - 1 miscarriage in 1400. So we went ahead with the CVS. We had no idea what we would do if it turned out there were abnormalities but we needed to know. If it turned out to have severe abnormalities which meant it would not survive to birth or for long after, I needed to know as soon as possible in order to make a tough decision. It was so depressing - we had to schedule the test for two days after Christmas. Needless to say, worst Christmas ever. Had the test, paid an extra $3000 to get the prelim. results after 24 hours. And guess what? My sweet little boy was chromosomally normal. We still had a high risk of hear defects so we had to wait until 21 weeks to do a fetal echocardiogram but his heart was fine.

When they give you the odds numbers, they are terrifying. You are probably not a mathematician so it's hard to get your brain around the numbers but what we later realized was that even when you have a 1:3 chance of issues, there's still a 70% chance that your child is fine. Your odds are better than ours were - MUCH better.

hang in there - we are all pulling for you.
sarah