The Dentist, Flu Shots & Soup

I spent three hours at the dentist this morning – a regular cleaning (love those! seriously, I do) and getting a cracked tooth fixed. Turns out I am a wickedly intense clencher and I had CRACKED a tooth because I clench so hard. Hey, when I do something, I like to do it well. 😉 Too bad my previous dentist never caught how bad it was, and thank goodness for new insurance that required me to switch dentists.

Because of the clenching, my jaw and neck is sore all the time, I have headaches every day, and my jaw pops a lot. It’s all just gotten pretty bad in the past few months, as life has been preeeeetty stressful lately which definitely makes the problem worse. It was a good reminder about stress management, and hopefully continuing with meditation and increasing my yoga practice will help. That, and the mouth guard I got fitted for today. Joy.

I decided to follow up the dentist appointment with getting my first flu shot in 8 or 9 years. The last time I got one, I got the worst flu of.my.life., and I was visiting family in a different state for over a week so I wasn’t even in my own home and bed and was sick the entire time. It was awful. I’m sure the flu shot/getting the flu was a coincidence and not a cause & effect, but I’ve been superstitious ever since. However, a friend talked me into it this year by reminding me of all the travelling I’m doing lately and how I’m trapped on planes with tons of sick people. (Never mind that my primary care physician couldn’t talk me into it.)

So by lunch time, my arm was sore, my mouth was numb and I was starving since I had a light breakfast (not smart Teri). I finally headed to Whole Foods to get some soup and it dribbled down my face as I tried to eat. It was pretty sexy, I tell ya. My numbness didn’t wear off for about 5 hours, but luckily I didn’t have to talk much on conference calls today!

I met Leslie Ann for some girl time/blog brainstorming time (something fun coming up!) after work and was starving by the time I got home. My jaw is extra sore tonight from all the work this morning so I ate more soup for a late dinner. But, the bonus of all this is that I discovered two awesome soups. I highly recommend both of these. And they’re both gluten free and dairy free.

I’m definitely going to keep both of these on hand for days I’m craving soup. They’d be great with a toasted baguette or crackers, but I passed on anything requiring chewing today.

Do you get a flu shot? Any other teeth grinders/clenchers out there?