Re: Regular / Routine // Blood test / Blood work

Originally Posted by
GoldLight
I would like to expand my vocabulary with some medical terms in English. I have been thinking about how to say, for example, if I go to see a doctor for a blood test.
Q1) Are these my phrases correct?
a) "Tomorrow I will have to see a doctor on an empty stomach to take blood for a REGULAR blood test."
b) "Tomorrow I will have to see a doctor on an empty stomach to take blood for a ROUTINE blood test."
c) "Tomorrow I will have to see a doctor to take blood for a REGULAR FASTING blood test."
d) "Tomorrow I will have to see a doctor to take blood for a ROUTINE FASTING blood test."
Q2) Does the phrase "fasting" can be used instead of "on an empty stomach" as I write it?
Q3) I came across the term "a routine blood-work". Is it another term for "a blood test"?
Thanks
I'm not medically-qualified, but here goes.
First some comments on the words used:
1. You will be giving the blood. The doctor will be taking it. Be careful not to give the opposite impression.
2. A "regular" test is something which happens to a set schedule: every month, or every year, for example.
3. A "routine" test may also be a "regular" test, or it may be a one-off event; but the important thing about it is that it is not an emergency procedure.
4. "Fasting" may be used instead of "on an empty stomach".
5. If you are having a blood test, then the fact that you will be having blood taken is understood.
Taking all of the above into consideration, I would express the sentences above as, "Tomorrow, I will have to see a doctor for a routine fasting blood test".
Finally, I would assume that "a routine blood-work" is the same as "a routine blood test".
I'm not a teacher of English, but I have spoken it for (almost) all of my life....