Author, speaker, and executive coach Laura Gassner Otting is gearing up to run the TCS London Marathon in April, reclaiming her life after recovering from acute symptoms of pityriasis rubra pilaris, a rare autoimmune disorder.
The bestselling author of “Wonderhell: Why Success Doesn’t Feel Like It Should… and What to Do About It,” “Limitless: How to Ignore Everybody, Carve Your Own Path, and Live Your Best Life,” and “Mission-Drive: Moving from Profit to Purpose,” put her own advice to the test during her years-long struggle to discover what was making her sick, and how to heal.
What began as a dry, hacking cough in November 2020 took Gassner Otting from the top of her game to her bed, Googling symptoms and believing she would die. After six weeks and more than a dozen negative COVID tests, Gassner Otting’s fingertips started to peel and a rash appeared on her shoulders and arms.
Her life force drained, and she could no longer recognize herself. As she suffered painful welts, weight gain, and insomnia, she spent hours in bed making mental lists of videos to leave for her children to mark their important milestones, because she believed she wouldn’t live to see them.
One chest X-ray, four biopsies, and 32 blood tests later, Gassner Otting finally found a specialist, Dr. Jeffrey Sobel, who understood what was happening. It turned out she was one of just 800 people in the U.S. with a rare inflammatory disorder called pityriasis rubra pilaris. The condition has no known cause.
Gassner Otting started down a path of experimental and off-label treatments tested for other diseases, with no guarantee they would work, and no guarantee she wouldn’t have an adverse reaction. With the help of her dermatologist, Dr. Rachel Herschenfeld, and Sobel, she was on her way to recovery in 2022, with her last IV in remission taking place in October.
“What even is ‘remission’ in a disease where no one fully understands the cause?” Gassner Otting said. “We only have only two choices: live in fear of it, or live in spite of it.”
After a 25-year career that took her from Presidential Appointee in Bill Clinton’s White House to entrepreneurship, to bestselling author of three books, Gassner Otting is committed to giving back.
She has helped build a local Montessori school, co-founded a women’s philanthropic initiative, advised a start-up national women’s PAC, and grew a citizen-leadership development program.
Her journey recovering from pityriasis rubra pilaris drove home the importance of access to good healthcare, and now she is set to run the TCS London Marathon in April to raise money for Boston Children’s Hospital, a hometown charity close to her heart.
Gassner Otting now applies the lessons she learned on her healthcare journey, along with her experience across the start-up, corporate, nonprofit, political, and philanthropic landscapes, to her work as an executive coach and speaker. She dares audiences to find their voice, and generate the confidence needed to tackle larger-than-life challenges by helping them to seek new ways of leading, managing, and mentoring others.
TMX contributed to this story.
