Stanley Cup Champions!

I don't often post about sports but there's no way I could let today pass without saying something. For the second time in 3 years, the Los Angeles Kings have won the Stanley Cup! Congratulations boys, you did it! The Cup is coming back home!

Stanley Cup Champions!!

During the regular season, E works all of the Los Angeles Kings hockey games. He was there when they won The Cup in 2012 and got to celebrate with the team afterwards in what was an unbelievably memorable night. We've got pictures of him with The Cup and they're definitely some of my favorite "work" shots.

Unfortunately, this year was a little bit different. E worked all the regular season games, but since the post season games aren't crewed until we know they're happening, he was already booked by other teams by the time the post season came around. He was only able to work a couple of the Kings post season games, and was working the LA Dodger game when the Kings won The Cup tonight.  He'll have to wait until next season to celebrate with our boys in black but that doesn't make the victory any less sweet. I'm pretty sure we'll be at their celebration parade on Monday, if my E2 ultrasound finishes in time.

Aside from the Kings killer victory, today was my second day of double injections and they seem to be going well. Still no weird side effects to speak of, and my skin isn't too irritated yet. Covered in little pin marks yes, but no bruising or redness. My only complaint is that it's a little crazy to go through this many vials of Menopur a day. I feel a bit like a walking pharmacy (Hey, wanna score a vial? I've got 8!) and although this cycle IS GOING TO WORK, positive thoughts!, if we have to do this again I'd definitely like to try Letrozole and Gonal F or Follistim. 

I also got to enjoy some double relaxation in the form of acupuncture AND a massage. My acupuncture appointment was first and went off like usual, a weekly nap. Needles go in, I go out. I think I'm actually starting to get drowsy on the way to acupuncture, like I'm anticipating the coming nap. Instead of fighting traffic and heading home afterwards, I met up with my mother-in-law to do a little work and we ended up going for massages and dinner. She goes to the best Thai massage place I've ever been to and I had the pleasure of the strongest masseuse working on me today. It was incredibly painful to have her repeatedly digging her elbow into my shoulder blade, so much so that she had to brace me on the table at one point because I was arching off, but I know I'll feel so, so much better tomorrow.  It felt almost like a battle of wills, can I take the pain or should I ask her to lighten up? Is she pressing harder because I'm not asking her to lighten up? Is this a test?

I survived my massage, just barely, and we capped off the evening with some delicious Italian food. I was well behaved and got my entree with whole wheat pasta, but I was sorely tempted by the deliciousness on the menu. I wonder if that's a symptom of the Menopur, the desire to hoover all food within reach? Soon, Italian goodies, once I'm pregnant I will eat you all.

Counterintuitive

Today is 8 day of birth control, which means I have just two more days to go! It's been very dejavu taking it, I was on birth control for almost 10 years and the little cardboard pack definitely throws me back. The last time I took it I was in Europe in 2010 and E was proposing to me in Paris on my birthday. Before we left for the trip, I ran around like a nut trying to refill my prescription and get a hard copy of it,  I was so unnecessarily paranoid that airport security would toss my pills if I didn't bring the prescription with me. Because obviously they've never seen birth control before and I was really using it to smuggle drugs. In hindsight, we didn't actually need it, E and I will never have to use birth control again. He's still teasing me now about the birth control, "aren't we trying to GET pregnant?" but he understands the process, even if it feels counterintuitive.

We meet again BCP

For this cycle I had to shell out $50 for a three month supply, the 10 pills I need and a whole lot of pills I don't. I shouldn't be complaining about $50 though, since I picked up just a small portion of the Menopur I'll need, 20 vials, and that ran me $1200. It looks like I'll need about 88 vials this cycle, 8 a day for 11 days, which is about $4800. Now that makes $50 seem pretty inconsequential.

Over the past few days, E and I have been trying to spend as much time together as possible. He has a really busy period coming up at work that will coincide with all my injections and monitoring and I'm afraid we won't be seeing as much of each other as we'd like. On Monday, we drove down to North End Bar and Grill, the Los Angeles Kings bar in Hermosa Beach, and watched the Kings eliminate the Blackhawks in game 7. It was so much fun, the bar exploded every time something happened and it was almost as good as actually being at the game. E will be working for all the upcoming games (where they'll win the cup!!) so I'm glad we got to enjoy this one together.

Go Kings!

On Tuesday, E had a late call so we decided to take advantage of some AMC Gift Cards and went to see a matinee of X Men. I can't remember the last time we went to a movie, I never want to shell out the $18-$21 per ticket, and we don't take enough advantage of the $8 weekday matinees. It was a pretty good movie, completely reset the franchise, and we were able to squeeze in some lunch too before he had to go to work.

Wednesday E was gone all day, but yesterday he reversed his usual schedule and was home in the afternoon. He spent the morning building graphics for an upcoming track and field event and was able to finish up by noon. We celebrated with some In-n-out, definitely not on my acupuncture diet, a Netflix copy of The Hunger Games 2, and then had a surprisingly fun water balloon fight. I haven't played with water balloons since I was maybe 12 in summer camp, but when I saw them on sale at the store the other day I just couldn't resist. We stripped out of our jeans, filled up a big bowl each and had a fabulous time smashing the balloons on each other. Some of them were pretty tough, I thew a couple that literally bounced off E, fell to the floor and didn't break, even though I tried to fill them as much as possible to weaken the structure. Milou thought the whole thing was hilarious, although the hose we used to fill them was definitely her favorite part.

Oh yes we did

We capped off the evening with some delicious Bigg Chill frozen yogurt, also not on my diet, and watched a couple episodes of House of Cards. I'm really glad we were able to spend so much time together, E had already left for work when I woke up this morning and on Saturday morning I have to put him on a plane to go work that Track and Field event. I'll pick him up on Sunday morning with just enough time to say "Hello" before he turns around and leaves for the next event. He's actually supposed to be there at 6:30am but since his plane doesn't land until 10, he's going to be a bit late.  Then he's working 16 out of the next 18 days, I'll be starting up my injections again, and will be back to living at the doctor for monitoring ultrasounds. 

I'm off now to my acupuncture appointment, where I hopefully won't pay for my diet indiscretions too harshly. Between the frozen yogurt and the In-N-Out cheese, I fear for my phlegm points!