What is a blood test ?

A needle is inserted in my vein in order to draw my blood.

Veins are blue lines that I can see under my skin.
My veins are full of blood.

My doctor is the one who requests a blood test.

He gives me a prescription.

What is it for ?

A blood test can help tell if I have a disease.

It helps the doctor prescribe me with the right medication.

It helps monitor the illness’s progress.

Before the blood test.

So that it won’t hurt, I can numb my skin two hours ahead of time of applying:

• some anesthetic pomade
• or an anesthetic patch.

If I am nervous, I can go to a hospital that has MEOPA.

MEOPA is a gas that I breathe in so that I feel calmer.
To find out more, look at the document on MEOPA.

Oftentimes, I must not eat or drink before a blood test.

What happens during a blood test ?

I go to the laboratory

or a hospital or clinic

or a nurse comes to my house.

A nurse greets me.

She tells me to sit down on a chair or couch.

My arms rests on the armrest.
The person who came with me can stay by my side.

The nurse puts on gloves and a mask.

The nurse puts a tourniquet around my arm.

The tourniquet is a large elastic band.
The tourniquet squeezes my arm and my veins get bigger.

The nurse asks me to make a fist.

The nurse prepares to draw my blood.

She chooses a vein and taps it to make it bigger.
She rubs a cotton ball with alcohol on my arm to clean my skin.
It’s a little cold !
She inserts the needle into my vein.
It is very important not to move my arm.

I do not have to look.

There are ways to make it hurt less and feel less scared.
To find out more, see the booklet on pain.

My blood flows into a tube.

My blood is red !
Drawing blood does not take very long.
When the tube is full the nurse removes it.
Sometimes, she fills several tubes.

Afterwards.

I relax my fist and then the nurse removes the tourniquet.
She removes the needle and presses a cotton ball on my arm.
The nurse puts on a bandage.

After the blood test.

I can eat.

I can remove the bandage two hours later.

A bruise could appear and disappear within a couple days.

The lab analyses my blood.

It sends me the results.

I go back to the doctor.

He explains the results to me.

SantéBD Multilingual is a project supported by the Orange Foundation.

Where can I find SantéBD booklets?

• On the internet www.santebd.org
• On the SantéBD Channel Youtube

All SantéBD booklets are free.

SantéBD‘is a project by the NGO Coactis Santé.

contact@coactis-sante.fr

SantéBD booklets are produced in partnership with different participants from the world of healthcare and working with disabilities. Illustrations by Frédérique Mercier.

All right to reproduction, representation and modification are reserved in any format worldwide. Any use for purposes other than education and information, and any commercial use is prohibited.

Copyright Coactis Santé

The creation of this tool was made possible with the support of:

• la Fondation Handicap Malakoff Humanis
• la Fondation de France
• l’Assurance maladie
• la mairie de Paris
• la Caisse nationale de solidarité pour l’autonomie
• Santé publique France

This document was proofread by people with learning disabilities and respects the European Easy-to-Read Guidelines. These guidelines help to make information available for everyone.

For more information visit the website https://www.inclusion-europe.eu/easy-to-read/