Timeline
The incidents described in this diary are both hectic and dramatic. I came pretty close to dying on the night of May 12.
Here's a timeline of four challenging months in 2004.n Week of April 19: Teaching a Microsoft course in Paris.
n Monday, April 26: My wife's aunt, affectionately known as " Aunt Kitty" passed away in Jamaica.
n Tuesday, April 27: We flew to Jamaica to be with my mother-in-law in the city of Mandeville. We spent the rest of the week preparing for the funerals on the weekend.
n Sunday, May 2: Aunt Kitty's funerals.
n Week of May 2: Intense work - completing Southeastern Conference Session Materials. The session was to be held Sunday May 16, and some materials were not ready till May 9.n Week of May 9: Intense work - on a chapter for a book on Microsoft Visual Studio .NET "Whidbey." The book had a very short deadline, so there was intense time pressure.
n Wednesday, May 12: The day before I was supposed to fly home, I suffered a brain hemorrhage.n Friday, May 14: I was admitted to the University Hospital in Kingston, Jamaica. They discovered a large aneurysm in the brain, apparently having been there for years.
n Sunday, May 16: They operated to clip the aneurysm and close off the brain hemorrhage.
n Friday, May 28: I was released from the hospital, after only two weeks. Praise God!
n Monday, June 14: I had a follow-up appointment with the neurosurgeon, who said I was recovering faster than most of his patients.
n June-July: I recuperated in the quiet beauty of Mandeville, in the loving care of my wife, Erlinda and my mother-in-law, Linda Parchment.
n Wednesday, July 28: Erlinda and I returned to Orlando, three months and a day after we'd arrived in Jamaica for what should have been a two-week visit.