Purpletigron

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).