A print-it-yourself sciatica zine
Something a bit different!
Thanks for reading the 56th edition of my newsletter. This newsletter tracks my work on lumbar nerve root sydromes. Current status:
Cauda Equina Syndrome book: Finished 🏁
Understanding Sciatica book: Being reworked and rewritten for paperback 🔃
Managing Sciatica book: In progress 🚧
Hi everyone,
Here’s something different! A print-it-yourself zine:
What’s a zine?
A zine (short for magazine) is a small-circulation self-published work of texts and images, usually reproduced via a copy machine. Zines are the product of either a single person or of a very small group.
So basically a kind of DIY magazine/comic book thing.
This one looks like this:
Ok, why a zine?
Well, I thought it would be fun.
This particular zine is a kind of experiment. I think this might be a good format to write about assessment of sciatica. And the zine in this email is a kind of test-run for that. I’ve chosen a familiar topic, which is the definitions of referred pain, radicular pain and radiculopathy. And if people like this as a format, I’ll dive in and make some more about assessment of sciatica.
Since it is a bit of an experiment, it’s a bit rough around the edges. But I think it turned out pretty well :)
So, download a copy below!
📲 Read on your phone/laptop:
Download here:
🖨 Print on a duplex (auto double sided) printer:
To print auto double sided: set your printer to landscape, click ‘double sided’, click ‘long edge’ (not ‘short edge’), and select ‘print entire image’ (not ‘fill entire paper’). You might also want to select a high print quality/resolution, although the default will probably be fine.
Once you’ve printed, just fold it together—the pages should be in the right order. If you have a long stapler, you can staple the spine too.
Printing directly from your browser might not be optimal, so best to download it and open it in something else.
🖨 Print on a non-duplex (manually double sided) printer:
To print manually double sided: there are some instructions for manually printing double sided here, although I’m told that since all printers are different it’s likely a case of working out how to do it on yours…
Basically, there are six pages to the pdf (each page of the pdf has two pages of the zine). You’re looking to get page 1 and 2 of the pdf printed on different sides of the same piece of paper, and the same for pages 3 and 4 and pages 5 and 6. It’ll probably involve printing all the odd or even pages first then re-inserting the paper, hopefully the right way round…
For the settings: Set your printer to landscape, click ‘long edge’ (not ‘short edge’), and select ‘print entire image’ (not ‘fill entire paper’). You might also want to select a high print quality/resolution, although the default will probably be fine.
Once you’ve printed, just fold it together—the pages of the zine are numbered 1-10, so you can make sure they’re in the right order. If you have a long stapler, you can staple the spine too.
Printing directly from your browser might not be optimal, so best to download it and open it in something else.
Okay, that’s it!
Why not print a few and leave them round the office/clinic?
Let me know what you think. Feedback will be very useful 👍
If this is popular, I’ll write some more about assessment :)
EDIT: This was indeed popular, so I made a Zine about assessment too - see here
Til next time,
Tom
Dorsal Root Ganglion narrators are the best narrators!
Thank you for sharing it Tom. It looks pretty good. :)