Answer: Having worked my part-time job at the local hardware store, I came home to have lunch with my wife. After lunch I went into the living room to read the Sunday paper, and my next recollection is that about a dozen people (including the police, EMTs, paramedics, my fire chief and the deputy chief) were milling around trying to get some response from me.I was rushed to the hospital with an initial diagnosis of syncope. Myriad tests were ordered (an electrocardiogram, an electroencephalogram, a CAT scan, x-rays, blood work, and a carotid doppler, among others), but there was no conclusion as to the cause of my blackout. The EEG tech suggested that I might have a sleep disorder, and I mentioned this to several of my doctors. They did not respond at all to this idea.After my release I had an MRI, 24-hour EEG, a cardiac stress test and more blood work. All results were normal. I requested a sleep study to be performed at the local sleep disorder center. The diagnosis was that I have severe sleep apnea."Could this have caused my blackout?" I wondered. The experts' answer continued to be, "We don't know, but possibly." The sleep center prescribed a BiPAP (Bi-level Positive Air Pressure) machine to correct the sleep apnea. A titration study (a test to find the necessary pressure for the BiPAP machine to work most effectively) was performed in January. It indicated that I needed to control thirty-seven apnea events per hour, and so required a BiPAP pressure of 14cm/10cm. I was told by the sleep center techs that I would experience an adjustment period and considerable frustration in getting used to the whole process.