Hank's been dealing with a lot of medical stuff. In addition to his regular daily diabetes blood testing and shots, he's had regular venous draws and extra specialist visits for all the other things going on. His thyroid levels have been high for about year, and he's starting having symptoms (high heartrate, bad night sweats), so he's started taking Tapazole - he is a PRO at swallowing those pills. He's also had several extra blood draws because his white count is low (about 1200 neutrophils when normal is 1500 to 22,000). The docs are hoping his white count will improve once his thyroid levels are straightened out. And finally his celiac screen was very positive (a problem where if you eat wheat or other grains containing gluten it damages your intestine), and they need to do an intestinal biopsy to verify the diagnosis, but won't do that until his thyroid levels are straightened out. We're really hoping he doesn't have celiac, because it means no wheat, rye, oats, or barley...ever again. The good news is that he looks and feels fine; but it's frustrating to know there are so many autoimmune things going on in that body of his. Anyway, the last stray was when he went to his 6 year old pediatrician visit (where they measured him FOUR inches taller than last year!!), and he unexpectedly had to get two immunizations (the girls were told after their kindergarten shots they wouldn't get any more until they were twelve, so I told Hank that too :-(

Because of all the medical stuff Hank's been dealing with him I offered to get him something special, and he chose.....a pet mouse! So I'm not sure what happened, but we are now the proud owners of THREE mice, each with their own cage. Rene's is named Lily, Corrina's is named Gabriella (Gaby for short), and Hank's is named Thomas. Corrina's cage is a bit bigger and has a tall lookout tower sticking out the top. Corrina's mouse is a bit timid; Hank's is very outgoing and active.
Also see a picture of one of the groundhogs that have taken up residence in the back yard.