The prognosis you give yourself is the only one that's important. You can't allow yourself to become the victim of a negative prognosis.

At the young age of thirty-three, Nancy Davis was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. The finality of the neurologist's prognosis was devastating: "There is nothing you can do. Go home and go to bed...forever." Nancy left her doctor's office in shock and despair. How could it be that within a year she would be confined to her bed, at best able to push the buttons on her television's remote control? She had plans. She had a family. She had a life that she desperately wanted to live.

Nancy made a choice. Rather than accepting this hopeless prognosis, she began to educate herself, to create an effective health regimen, and to expand her range of therapeutic options. She literally reinvented her prognosis and in doing so she created a healthy new life.

Lean on Me couples Nancy's deeply personal story with a step-by-step guide to empower anyone to take charge of his or her own health care in the face of any life-threatening disease:

Step One Embrace Change

Step Two Fear Less

Step Three Never Take No for an Answer

Step Four Find Your Dr. Right

Step Five Build Your Health Team

Step Six You Are What You Ingest

Step Seven Let's Get Physical

Step Eight Explore Alternative Therapies

Step Nine Tame the Health Care Monster

Step Ten Give Back

Life-altering diseases often come with a list of "can'ts," "won'ts," and "no's." Nancy teaches readers how to move beyond these negative concepts and focus on what they personally can and will do to improve their health. Each of these steps offers readers the strategies and strength to carry on when they're feeling overwhelmed, and the concrete tools for actively seeking and receiving the best treatment.

Lean on Me is the health advocate that each of us needs to adopt in the face of a medical crisis. It is a book that shows how to navigate the health care waters, to find hope, to take positive action, and to celebrate progress -- all kinds, every day. It provides the knowledge and power to make good choices. It supplies the authoritative information that can enable you to save your life or the life of a loved one.