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A lovely Christmas with the family. My Dad had the pleasure of sharing bourbon with not only his daughter, but also his granddaughter. It’s kind of sweet. My Dad enjoys having a drink every day, and he particularly likes that I drink bourbon with him when I visit. And last night, My Gift joined us for the first time.

Bonding over booze. Nothing like a family holiday.

Seriously, though, it was all very nice — the humans ate, laughed and exchanged gifts, and the dogs got along well.

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I went to a new chiropractor this week. I wanted some help sorting out what I figured was a sore QL. It only bothers me in kapotasana, urdhva dhanurasana and dropbacks, but those are the postures I am most interested in these days, so I wanted to see if there was any need for an adjustment. I can feel that the pain is related to some kind of subtle twist in my hips (and, by default, spine), and I don’t want to let it go unaddressed, since twisting torque is not the body’s friend.

My initial consultation was pretty funny. I had to fill out a sheet that asked how bad my pain was on a scale of 1 to 10 (I said 2). I had to indicate if the pain affected any of a long list of activities (answered no to all of them, since “affects asana practice” wasn’t an option). And I had to indicate whether the pain was constant or intermittent, and qualify the character of the pain (“searing,” “stabbing,” etc. — there was no option for “makes me want to skip to closing poses”).

So then the chiro did some kinesthetic tests.

“Touch your toes,” he said.

I put my hands on the floor.

“Any pain?” he asked.

“No.”

“Bend as far back as you can,” he said.

I did a hangback.

“Does that hurt?” he asked.

“No.”

I lay on the table and he pushed my leg toward my face. Started laughing as it just kept going.

“Most of my patients would be screaming before I got their legs perpendicular to the table. Does this hurt at all?”

“No.”

He tried external hip rotations (a half lotus and then pushing down on my knee).

“Anything?”

“No.”

He did an assisted backbend stretch that was similar to dhanurasana.

“No pain,” I said.

He looked at the info I’d given him and said, “I’m having a hard time understanding what we need to do here.”

I explained that if I am on my knees and then back bend and try to grab my feet, THAT’S when I feel the pain. He laughed again.

Anyhow, the upshot of all of this is that he thinks it’s not my QL, but my left hip flexor. Okay, I’m willing to work with that hypothesis. I like that he is trying to solve for this despite the fact that it falls outside of his diagnostic tests. He talked about kidneys and meridians and tailbones — I kind of glazed over a bit because I’m not up on the meridian stuff (I’m doing some reading now to try to catch up), and then there was an adjustment and some ultrasound. Nice.

The next day, I felt pretty stiff and sore. Today, though, I woke up with intense sensation in my psoas muscles (both sides). Not simple pain, though it was a little painful, but more the kind of sensation where you are super-attuned to the muscle. Like it’s slightly chilled taffy with tons of nerve endings. Did primary this morning, paying lots of attention to the easy-to-access sensation of the psoas. I hope this sensitivity stays for a little while — I know I have work to do here.

Anyhow, another session on Monday. We’ll see how it goes.

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Merry Christmas to all of you. I hope you get everything you wish for in 2010.