08/13/2026
: Janene’s Story
"I always thought I had a pretty good handle on my psoriasis. I’d lived with plaque psoriasis for years, managed it with topicals, and just got used to the ups and downs. But nothing prepared me for what happened that summer day in Utica, New York.
It started with a blister on my foot. I noticed it while volunteering at a charity golf event. It didn’t hurt, didn’t seem like much. I figured maybe it was from my flip-flops. But then I started feeling dizzy, nauseous, and feverish. More blisters showed up. I drove home, thinking rest would help. It didn’t.
By that evening, I could barely stand. My skin was swelling, and I felt like I was burning from the inside out. I was trying to hide it from my kids. I looked like an alien or something, and I didn’t know why. I didn’t want to scare them. Finally we went to the ER, where I was told it might be athlete’s foot, but I knew it wasn’t. By the next day, the pustules had spread to both feet. The pain was unbearable. I couldn’t walk. I couldn’t function. But it wasn’t until I saw a local doctor on that I finally got answers.
He took one look and said, “This is serious. This is pustular psoriasis.” Specifically, GPP [generalized pustular psoriasis]. I had never even heard of it.
The following weeks were some of the hardest of my life. My husband and I became my care team. We changed dressings, cleaned wounds, managed pain. My skin peeled away. My nails fell off. The blisters moved to my hands. I spent weeks unable to walk, relying on a bedpan next to my bed. The physical pain was excruciating, but so was the fear.
Eventually, I started treatment with a biologic, and that’s what helped turn things around. I can tell when it’s time for my medication toward the end of the month, I can feel it in my feet. Slowly, I regained some strength and mobility. My skin began to heal. But GPP left its mark on me physically, emotionally, and mentally.
It changed how I see myself, how I move through the world. I had to stop working. I had to learn to ask for help. But I also learned what it means to keep going when everything feels like it’s falling apart."
Thank You to Our GPP Resource Center sponsor, LEO Pharma
