After the procedure:

• Apply pressure to the wound for at least 2 mins – You may find that the skin stops bleeding before 2 minutes, but you also need to stop the vein from bleeding underneath the skin to prevent any bleeding, so a full 2 minutes will ensure this. Longer if you are on blood thinning medication.
• Keep your dressing on for at least 1 hr – This is to ensure the wound doesn’t reopen and start bleeding again. The tiny scab is very fragile for the first hour and could be knocked off.
• Try not to overuse your arm or lift anything too heavy – This includes children, other heavy loads, or weights a the gym. This may aggravate and reopen the wound, causing more bruising or bleeding.

Seek medical advice if you are concerned about:

• Excessive bruising – A bruise is caused by bleeding under the skin. The skin has healed, but the vein is still bleeding. A small bruise is normal after having blood taken. It is often a consequence of not applying enough pressure after the procedure to fully heal the wound, or aggravating the wound after the procedure, so the vein doesn’t have time to heal.
  If you notice excessive bruising along a section of your arm, this could be down to a blown vein. This is more common in fragile veins of older people. The vein will spring little leaks along it’s length, causing a bruise along the path of the vein.
  If the bruise is getting bigger, this means the vein is still bleeding. Apply pressure to the bruise. This might seem counter intuitive, but the idea is to stop the vein bleeding under the skin.
  Once the bruise has stopped getting bigger, apply an ice pack to reduce any swelling. The bruise will dissipate in a few days.
• Continued pain beyond 24 hrs – Your nerve endings are in the your skin, so the only point at which venepuncture should hurt is when the needle passes through your skin. You should feel no more than a scratch.
  There are nerves under the skin, but it is incredibly rare for a phlebotomist to hit them, and incredibly unlucky for you and the phlebotomist. If they do hit a nerve, it will hurt. But the pain should stop, as soon as the needle is removed.
  You may not feel pain, the sensation could be that of tingling or numbness. Normally this indicates swelling, or a small bruise under the skin, putting pressure on the nerve, and this is not uncommon. Feeling will return to normal once the swelling has gone down in a couple of days. You can put an ice pack on the site to help reduce any swelling.
  If you continue to feel pain days after the procedure, then there could have been some nerve damage. This is incredibly rare.
• Continued bleeding – This could happen if you are on blood thinning medication, or if you have aggravated the wound before letting it fully heal.
  Apply pressure to the wound with a cotton wool ball or sterile dressing from a first aid kit. Keep applying strong pressure for at least 10 minutes until the bleeding has stopped.
  If you feel light headed or sick, or your skin becomes pale, you may have lost more blood than you realise and be suffering from shock. Call 999 immediately.

If you are concerned about any of the above, contact your local GP, or call 111 in the first instance. If these can’t help, then please contact us on 0 333 33 999 32 so that we can assist you further.