My grandfather age 89 is in stage 6 of dementia. He still knows me but I can tell his memory is declining fast. Over the past year he has been very anemic. In Dec. 2015 he was given 2 bags of blood and yesterday he was given 4 bags of blood. He is NOT loosing blood. He has had multiple test. Is this normal for dementia patients? He also has only one kidney that was removed due to cancer years ago. It seems to be working fine. He has been in a assisted living facility for the past 3 months. He could walk to the dining area with the walker at first. He began falling shortly after he arrived there. The past two weeks he has fallen everyday. This is why he eventually was taken to the ER. He is having to go back to a skilled nursing facility after his stay in the hospital. He was there last year and went through physical therapy and got well enough to go to assisted living. As I mentioned he declined over a 3 month period. The assisted living facility worked with him diligently trying to make him stronger but it didn't last long. He ate better than I do. Three full course meals a day. I checked it out multiple times and kept up with his care. Home health and physical therapy visited him 2- 3 days a week. Any suggestions or experience would be greatly appreciated.
One possibility is myelodysplastic syndromes, some doctors describe it as tired bone marrow syndrome. In many cases treatment is just monitoring the blood and having periodic transfusions if needed.