Don't be a Buerk, Michael

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/news/archives/2005/08/16/dont_be_a_buerk_michael.html

A response to Michael "Life is now being lived in accordance with women's rules," Buerk:

By Ros Taylor / UK news 02:42pm

( Start here )

How about men's "reticence, stoicism and single-mindedness"? Curiously, the Adam Smith Institute recently suggested that it was just these qualities in women that made them less likely to obtain firsts at Oxford and Cambridge. "The boy sees the big picture, takes risks, and often misses important material," one (male) don explained. "The girl is systematic, does the detailed work, and sometimes misses the central thesis."

( More comment )

Put it this way: if this is life under the stiletto, then for God's sake kick us back into the kitchen. We're doing a poor job of running the world for our own benefit.'

A noble cause?

Backstory: Mater has a chronic hip problem, and was refered for physio in April. When she was in hospital for other reasons in May, the in-patient physiotherapist told her, "Don't do your exercises until I see you", and then never saw her again. When she came home, we resumed out-patient physio, and in July, Mater was signed off with a list of exercises and a recommendation to try massage and acupuncture. She is still in chronic pain. A day clinic physiotherapist took her exercises for review, and never saw her again Yesterday, she had her first acupuncture treatment, and was told to expect to see any positive results emerging by the end of the month.

Today, Mater's excellent named nurse was back from leave (Yay!), and arranged a proper consultation with yet another physiotherapist for this afternoon.

The new physiotherapist has not discussed the out-patient physio exercises with Mater at all, has told her to cancel all acupuncture appointments, and has treated Mater with a TENS machine.

I'm livid at the presumption! My plan: talk to the acupuncturist, who seems to have a good understanding of the Western science behind modern acupuncture. Then talk to the named nurse. If necessary, talk to the new physiotherapist.

But I need to know: are acupuncture and TENS treatment mutually exclusive in any way?

Edit I've found a hint that TENS works in a similar manner to massage, and differently from acupuncture. Our acupuncturist also offers massage, but considers that Mater's ~80% likely to benefit significantly acupuncture, and only ~20% likely to do so from ordinary massage. (The out-patient physio said that deep-tissue massage would be too painful and stressful for Mater at the moment).

No-name-ness

I would prefer not to friends-lock my LJ, but I don't want random searches on my real name to link here. So, if you know my name IRL, please don't use it in association with this handle*.

* Except one-to-one if I've specifically asked to be introduced to someone :-)