I am looking for anyone who can help me with the complications of pulstalar psorisis. This psorisis effects the hands and feet with a "pimple-type puss filled" rash in only those areas. In 2007, I started getting this psorisis also. My derm said it was a modern day "leprosy" and that you must stay on top of it or it will never go away. It took about 1 1/2 years for Remicade to finally "get on top" but now I suffer from my fingertips forming pimples and cracking to bloody messes. Please contact me if you have experience with this type, I would appreciate your help.
Thanks Andrew! I've been doing a little research myself on this form of psoriasis as well as a little medication experiment this past week. There was great information at the psoriasis foundation also regarding medication treatment. So much of this is "trial and error", sure would be nice to have some definate answers someday.I will definately make a point to tune into the webcast..thanks for sending it my way.
I really appreciate you writing your experience to me. Your situation sounded a little like mine a few years ago. When I went to my primary shortly after my hands started to break out, he too thought it was some kind of infection. After 1 week of antibotics and worsening complications; he sent me to a derm. It truly was the most devastating time of my life to date. The derm wouldn't look closely at my hands and feet nor come near me. He sent his assistants in to take pictures and diagnosed from those. My husband couldn't believe a doctor would treat someone like that. I cried all the way home thinking my life was over. I just wanted to die that day. He prescribed another antibotic and contacted my rhemy in SLC for the next available appointment; wasn't for another 2 weeks and a 4 hour drive to boot!
My rhemy immediately scheduled Remicade for the following day (since I still had to drive home). It took about 1 1/2 years for it to work completely. I had about 2 1/2 years of no problems until this past April when my hands started to break out agin. Nothing like last time, just a few "pimples" here and there. Then over the summer my fingers started to have them and the same thing happens that you have experienced. I have learned that the finger problems are not the same as the hand and feet psoriasis. It is a form called "acropustulosis" and it is pretty stubborn to treat. I totally agree with the diet changes, as I have found I feel better when I do not eat certain foods. Come to think about it, many foods do cause flammatory issues.
I am glad to hear that chaning your diet worked for you. Your post certainly helped open my eyes to the importance of diet and I intend to start tracking my intake of foods daily to see what I can change for the better. Please stay in touch and let me know how you are doing from time to time....I would love to hear from you.
My daughter developed pustular psoriasis on her hands when she was 4 and we fought it daily until she was about 12. We used a five minute doak oil soak, followed by diprosone ointment with occlusion (plastic wrapped) every night. When we got it to the point that the pustules were clear we started anthralin treatments (every other night gradually increasing the time to a maximum of 3 hours). Took a very long time to get it controlled. The skin on her hands is still scarred from the steroids. She lost several nails and although they grew back they are rippled and not attached properly. She has recently been dx with PsA as well (were told with pustular you have a higher chance of developing the arthritis). Because she was so young the drug choices were rather limited. She is 18 now and has psoriasis on her elbows and knees (just typical run of the mill psoriasis). Her finger tips will still crack open and bleed if she doesn’t keep her skin well moisturized. I think this is more because of the scarring although she says once in a while she will see a small pustual but they generally clear on their own.
Hopefully the newer drugs will keep you from going through the long road we had.
Sorry to hear about your daughter and her diagnosis. I think the hands are the toughest to deal with for me and most likely for others, too. You need your hands and feet everyday to do even the simplest of tasks. I have wrapped my fingertips at night with tubular gauze and ointments and that seems to have helped them in the way of softening. I think my problems with my fingers cracking and bleeding now is more about the scarring rather than psoriasis. My doctors have explained that the skin will never be same or even grow more layers to be 100% like they were before all this. Your daughter's skin problems sounds exactly as mine. My body psoriasis is the typical plaques on minimal areas of my body. My head is the worse followed by some on my legs that become a headache when I need to shave. By far, I am most disappointed with my hands and finger issues. What kind of medications does your daughter take today?I have had great success with Remicade and I hope it will continue for years to come.
Good luck to you and your daughter. Please let me know of any things you hear or see about this psoriasis...I would really appreciate it!
To quote Travis in his Psoriatic neuropathy discussion, Double holy crap!! The description of pustular psoriasis here has just given me a huge shock. When I was about 7 or 8 years old, I had some strange skin problem on my fingers and toes where the skin would split open and deep cracks/crevasses would appear and often bleed. That went on for about 2 - 3 years. My doc treated it as a bad fungal infection and I had to use this nasty smelly petroleum-based cream and then wrap my hands and feet in baggies taped around ankles/wrists every night. It eventually went away (still have scarring on my fingertips and toes - I have the weirdest looking fingerprints!). Over the years I would periodically get little clear pimple/pustule things on the tips of my fingers. They never got very bad and weren't really bothersome and would clear up on their own. Roll forward to me at 43, 2 years ago, and being diagnosed with PsA (pain in fingers and toes). It never occurred to me that all of these were related until now. I've never had typical derm psoriasis, other than what I had as a child, and that wasn't really typical. I'm actually looking forward to seeing my rheumy in December so I can tell him about the past skin issues! Thanks to everyone who posts on these discussions - it is truly an eye-opening experience!
She is currently on celebrex…seems to be all she needs right now. She’s very active (cheerleader) which I think may be part of what brought it on at this age. She just uses a good moisturizer on her hands but if she gets slack with it she gets the cracking and peeling.
anne marie said:
Hi Roni-
Sorry to hear about your daughter and her diagnosis. I think the hands are the toughest to deal with for me and most likely for others, too. You need your hands and feet everyday to do even the simplest of tasks. I have wrapped my fingertips at night with tubular gauze and ointments and that seems to have helped them in the way of softening. I think my problems with my fingers cracking and bleeding now is more about the scarring rather than psoriasis. My doctors have explained that the skin will never be same or even grow more layers to be 100% like they were before all this. Your daughter’s skin problems sounds exactly as mine. My body psoriasis is the typical plaques on minimal areas of my body. My head is the worse followed by some on my legs that become a headache when I need to shave. By far, I am most disappointed with my hands and finger issues. What kind of medications does your daughter take today?I have had great success with Remicade and I hope it will continue for years to come.
Good luck to you and your daughter. Please let me know of any things you hear or see about this psoriasis…I would really appreciate it!
Sorry after re-reading my reply noticed it probably didn’t make any sense! LOL
She doesn’t use anything now for the pustular psoriasis. Once it cleared at around age 12 it never came back. For the plaque psoriasis she doesn’t use anything but a good moisturizer. It is very mild on her elbows and knees and generally cycles in and out but has never been a concern. She also only uses moisturizer on her hands. The scaring is kind of different there… Not really visible, just rough skin. Her fingers (specially her thumbs which were the worst when she had the pustules) will crack and peel of she doesn’t moisturize every day.
The celebrex is for the PsA. She has more tendon inflammation than joint inflammation so at this point the celebrex works very well for her.
I also have PsA… Was dx at the same time that my daughter developed the pustular psoriasis. My oldest daughter also had psoriasis around the same time (few patches on her arms). Always made me wonder what environmental issue triggered us all at the same time! LOL
My oldest daughter’s cleared after a couple years and hasn’t had it come back and doesn’t have any joint issues (she’s 21).
I wonder also what would have triggered all of you at the same time. I have no one in my family with any of these issues, no dry skin, no patches, no joint issues ( outside of osteoarthitis). My rhemy has gone so far to say my PsA began with a nasty food poisoning incident, after that things started to hust very bad. A couple of years after my diagnosis an infection that put me in the hospital and that is when my skin went all crazy on me. I hope with the information you have shared, I will be able to inform my derm to look more into my situation.
Thanks for your help! Hope you have good days and keep in touch...I'd love to hear from you.
It was very odd… All three of us within a year of each other. I have a PsA diagnosis but don’t have psoriasis. I have a re-current rash on my scalp which came several years after the PsA diagnosis… But each time I’ve tried to get it checked, by the time I vet into the derm it’s cleared up. Of course the derm tries to confirm psoriasis by searching every nook and cranny… very embarrassing and he’s never found anything. They also keep Lupus on the table with me because I have other autoimmune issues.
anne marie said:
Roni-
I wonder also what would have triggered all of you at the same time. I have no one in my family with any of these issues, no dry skin, no patches, no joint issues ( outside of osteoarthitis). My rhemy has gone so far to say my PsA began with a nasty food poisoning incident, after that things started to hust very bad. A couple of years after my diagnosis an infection that put me in the hospital and that is when my skin went all crazy on me. I hope with the information you have shared, I will be able to inform my derm to look more into my situation.
Thanks for your help! Hope you have good days and keep in touch…I’d love to hear from you.