E03: Critical Reading – nyctime7

Brannan is a force of keeping her family together.

• Brannan is the matriarch of the Vines family.
• Without her, the family would likely run into problem.

She sleeps a maximum of five hours a night, keeps herself going with fast food and energy drinks, gets Katie to and from school and to tap dance and art, where Katie produces some startlingly impressive canvases, bright swirling shapes bisected by and intersected with other swaths of color, bold, intricate.

• For undisclosed reasons, Brannan can’t sleep for longer than 5 hours. Perhaps because of Caleb’s PTSD, her own form of PTSD, or because she simply can’t afford to.
• 5 hours isn’t enough sleep for her.
• She needs the aid of energy drinks and fast food to get through the day.
• Katie goes to school, tap dance, and art daily. Brannan is responsible for transportation.
• Katie is unexpectedly good at art.

That’s typical parent stuff, but Brannan also keeps Caleb on his regimen of 12 pills—antidepressants, anti-anxiety, sleep aids, pain meds, nerve meds, stomach meds—plus weekly therapy, and sometimes weekly physical therapy for a cartilage-lacking knee and the several disintegrating disks in his spine, products of the degenerative joint disease lots of guys are coming back with maybe from enduring all the bomb blasts, and speech therapy for the TBI, and continuing tests for a cyst in his chest and his 48-percent-functional lungs.

• It is normal for a parent to get a lack of sleep because of their children.
• Caleb is on a regimen of 12 pills and needs help with his treatment.
• Caleb has numerous mental and physical ailments.
• Brannan is responsible for making sure Caleb stays on his regimen.
• Caleb needs weekly therapy for his mental issues.
• Caleb has a degenerative joint disease. He has disintegrated disks in his spine and lacks cartilage in his knee as a result of the disease. He occasionally needs weekly physical therapy to treat both.
• Many men are returning with degenerative joint disease. It is possible that repeated bomb blasts are to blame, but this is not supported with evidence.
• Caleb has developed a speech disorder from his traumatic brain injury.
• Caleb has a cyst in his chest that has not been completely diagnosed, and requires monitoring.
• His lungs are less than half as functional as a healthy person.
• It isn’t normal for a parent to have to take close care of their spouse the way Brannan does for Caleb.

She used the skills she learned as an assistant to a state Supreme Court justice and running a small newspaper to navigate Caleb’s maze of paperwork with the VA, and the paperwork for the bankruptcy they had to declare while they were waiting years for his disability benefits to come through.

• Brannan has had at least two other jobs. Both dealing with paperwork in some form.
• The experience from both jobs has helped her with taking care of Caleb.
• “maze of paperwork” implies that Caleb has a lengthy record with the VA.
• For some reason, it’s a lengthy process to receive disability benefits. Perhaps because of the amount of applicants, or because of the aforementioned lack of understanding of PTSD.
• While waiting for years, the Vines encountered money problems and were forced to declare bankruptcy.

She also works for the VA now, essentially, having been—after a good deal more complicated paperwork, visits, and assessments—enrolled in its new caregiver program, which can pay spouses or other family members of disabled vets who have to take care of them full time, in Brannan’s case $400 a week.

• The author feels as though Brannan works for the VA now, since she receives payment from them.
• The process of being accepted into the new caregiver program requires more work than receiving disability benefits.
• Brannan has to take care of Caleb full time.