A story by my friend Diane Baumbach

I can remember a time when I was talking with my younger brother about whether he believed in God.  He told me that he did not.  I asked him why, and he told me that he does not believe in anything that he can’t see.  And he had a smart-alecky smirk on his face when he said it, like he was challenging me in some way to overcome that objection.  I just smiled at him and asked him if he can see the air that he breathes.  He said no, he could not.  Then I asked him if he believed that air existed.  He said yes.  Then I asked him why he believed that air existed if he can’t see it, but he did not believe God existed because he can’t see it.  I still laugh when I remember the expression on his face when I led him that!  His jaw dropped open and his face turned beet red!  He had no explanation to give.

I think of that story when ever I have to order cpap air filters for my mother-in-law’s cpap machine that she wears to bed at night.  She suffers from COPD and recently her doctor told her that she not only has to use an oxygen machine 24/7 but that she has to use a special CPAP machine at night to make sure that she doesn’t stop breathing at night.  I haven’t had any experience with anything like this before, and I have to find out if she needs HEPA cpap filters or if there are any kind that are not HEPA.  I want to make sure to get the right kind at the best price.

I think that it is wonderful that technolog and medicine have developed in such a way that people with breathing problems can survive for many years.