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I made a scene in public last week.
That’s not like me because I prefer to remain in the background. And I wasn’t even inebriated or having a mental episode.

Earlier that day I had my second cataract surgery. Everything seemed to go well and I was released with a raging appetite since my pre-op routine required refraining from eating after midnight.
Soon, we showed up at our regular restaurant and I ordered one of the specials, enchilada soup.
I finished my meal and was waiting for the others to clean their plates. That’s when my head began acting funny.
You know how it is when you eat ice cream too fast and get brain freeze? Well, that’s how my head was feeling, right behind my affected eye.
I held my head in my hands as the pain came and went. Then I began seeing those stars that warn of imminent swooning.
I placed my head on the table hoping to get the blood to flood back into my noggin. When that didn’t help, I moved to a vacant booth and laid down on a seat.
The stars continued to shine brightly despite my reclined position. Soon, restaurant workers were coming over to see if they could be of help.
“Larry, do you want us to call 911?” asked a concerned waitress.
I resisted at first but then gave in. Soon I was surrounded by EMTs and fire department first responders. I took my first ride in an ambulance. I don’t recommend it.
By the time I arrived in the ER I was feeling better. But that didn’t prevent a nurse from taking my vital signs, a doctor asking me all kinds of questions and a C-T scanning of my head.
We explained to the doc that I had had cataract surgery that day, so she contacted the ophthalmologist. He wanted me to come to his office in Greensboro as he suspected a pressure build-up in my eye.
I rode back to the Gate City with Ginny and my brother Ron, beating the eye doctor to the office. But an associate met me and did something to relieve the pressure.
My eye doctor, who arrived later, told me that before removing my cloudy lens he injected the eye with a gel. After replacing the lens, the gel is supposed to flow back out.
For some reason, however, the gel was blocked and continued to cause pressure in my eye. That’s why I created the scene at the restaurant.
I think the doctor felt slighted that I didn’t call him when the headaches started, rather than dialing 911. But I was kind of out of it at the time.
The next day I suggested to Ginny that we go to another restaurant since I wasn’t excited about our favorite eatery’s specials. She accused me of being embarrassed to face those people.
So we ate at our second-favorite restaurant while I denied her accusations. “I like the daily specials here, by the way,” I explained.
The second day after my near-passing out, we returned to the scene of the crime. We were shown to a table and I pretended nothing had happened.
Then our waitress came over and said, “Larry, I heard you had a problem the other day.”
“Oh, it was no big deal. They scanned my head and found nothing inside.”
After delivering our drinks, she asked for our food orders. Ginny requested a vegetable plate.
“What’ll you have, Mr. Larry?”
“I’ll have a headache with a fainting spell on the side.”
By the way, the waitress who was at the scene and showed concern for me wasn’t at work when I returned. I told the hostess to let her know that I was in the hospital in critical condition.
I guess being the center of attention brings out the worst in me.

Larry Penkava is a writer for Randolph Hub. Contact: 336-302-2189, larrypenkava@gmail.com.