bone marrow & red blood cells?

Question

How does extracting bone marrow tell you why you are not producing enough red blood cells. My mother is 88 and her body is not producing enough red blood cells. She's always tired, anemic, tremors, etc.

Answer 1

the bone marrow is the place in the body where the blood cells are produced ( Red, White and Platelets).
A bone marrow biopsy tells the MD what the ratio between healthy, malignant and non-producing cells are.
In elderly people sometimes you see that the healthy cells are pushed to the side by non-producing cells (f.e.fat) or an overgrows of other cells like white cells ( leukemia).
you can also tell if there is a case of malnutrition or a lack of iron or vitamin ( B12).
I hope it is a simple as that, but it is a very common thing in elderly people.

Answer 2

They count the number of Reticulacytes (sp?) which are baby blood cells out of a thousand blood cells. I did one semester in a medical program and we did that test through microscopes. Its amazing but in real life they use a machine these days to do the count. If there is very low baby cells then there is a problem.

Answer 3

Red blood cells (also called erythrocytes) are shaped like slightly indented, flattened disks. RBCs contain the iron-rich protein hemoglobin. Blood gets its bright red color when hemoglobin picks up oxygen in the lungs.