Walk It Off

For fans of Furiously Happy and Brain on Fire, the story of one woman’s surprisingly hilarious journey to learn how to walk again 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 (Wee!)
Step 4: Walk with walker
Step 5: Walk with sticks
Step 6: Walk
Recreational interlude for sex (Hooray!)
Step 7: RUN!

Ruth Marshall—power-mom, wife, actor, and daughter—was in great health, until one day, her feet started to tingle. Ruth visited doctors and specialists for tests, but no one could figure out the cause of her symptoms. Was she imagining those pesky tingles? 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 tumour 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?”

What Ruth thought would be three days in the hospital turned into months of rehabilitation as she learned not only how to walk, run, pee and even have sex again, but how to appreciate everyone around her—including her devoted husband, her two young sons, her worried parents, her loving friends, and the caring staff at the rehab centre who help her tackle her recovery head on.

Laugh-out-loud outrageous and searingly honest, this is a memoir that not only entertains but inspires readers to put their best foot forward and walk off anything life throws their way.