Furiously Happy meets Elaine Lui in this truly original—and surprisingly hilarious—memoir about one woman’s journey to learn how to walk after a debilitating diagnosis turned her life upside down.
Learn How to Walk (Again) To-Do List:
Step 1: Stand
Step 2: Step
Step 3: Pee (Yes!)
Step 4: Walk with walker
Step 5: Walk with sticks
Step 6: Walk without props
Recreational interlude for sex
Step 7: RUN!
Ruth Marshall—power-mom, wife, actor, and daughter—was in great health, until one day, her feet started to tingle. As the feeling travelled up her legs, Ruth visited doctors and specialists for tests, but no one could figure out the cause of her symptoms. Was she imagining those pesky tingles? And then came a new numbness spreading up her legs. Was this menopause coming way ahead of schedule? She tried to brush it off, even as she tripped over curbs and bumbled into people. Clumsiness is charming, right?
But when Ruth suddenly couldn’t feel her legs at all, she knew something was terribly wrong. Her fears were confirmed by an MRI revealing a rare tumor—a meningioma—that had been quietly growing on her spine for over a decade. Within days, surgery was scheduled, and after the intense eight-hour ordeal, Ruth woke up to find her legs and feet had forgotten how to do . . . well, everything. The question that burned in her mind was, “Will I ever walk again?”