Well, still no answers

 Well, it's been six days of being in the hospital, and there are still no answers as to what brought him there in the first place. I mean, the fevers brought him in to the ER, but the reasons behind the fevers are still unknown. The original diagnosis of pneumonia was pretty much thrown out by the pulmonologists. 

This is the update Brent sent to his Computer architects group that explains it in techy terms:

"This is what I told the architects - Lisa will update the blog sometime today, but to put it in terms most of us are familiar with, we are now looking at a “ghost in the machine” issue. Four times in three years with the same “pneumonia”, in exactly the same spot in one lung, absolutely nothing to see when they scope it, and the accompanying fever goes away after they flush out my lungs as part of the scope process. There is now a team just like the one we put together that will review everything because everybody is stumped. But at least we know exactly the pattern it presents with (just like our AWS canary) so when it does show up they know what to do to resolve the issue - I just wish it was a little less draconian than flushing out my lungs. You are fully sedated but waking up is not a lot of fun. I should be out on Friday. Today and tomorrow are mostly just observation to be sure I don’t just show up again in a few days."

So, actually Brent will come home this afternoon sometime. His case will go before the pulmonologist board in the next week or so to review his records and talk about any new ideas, biopsies, recommendations, etc. There is just no evidence of anything at all, but there is something. As Brent put it, it's a ghost in the machine. We are still thankful for a Dr who is willing to research and not treat Brent as a normal patient with a normal bout of pneumonia. 

We now just need to pray that the fevers stay away and that somehow answers will come, as this unknown condition has now put him in the hospital four times. Also praying that it is not a side effect of the Stelara he injects once a month to keep the Crohn's at bay. He has run out of options for Crohn's treatments. 

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