The Parkinson’s Iceberg

Many of us with Parkinson's are familiar with the symptom iceberg. It is a graphic depiction of the seen and unseen symptoms of Parkinson's. The symptoms that can be seen by others are listed next to the iceberg above the water level and the unseen symptoms are listed under the water next to the same iceberg. Clever? Yes. Not sure I appreciate the comparison of me and my Parkinson’s symptoms to a cold and icy figure, but it is better than being compared to a raccoon, as we often are.

In the early days of my diagnostic journey with Parkinson's I came across the iceberg and was focused on its cleverness when I downloaded it onto my phone. I thought it accurately listed my symptoms those seen and unseen. Tremors, muscle rigidity and postural disturbance were  at the top of the list above the waterline; sleep difficulties, bladder dysfunction and loss of smell were some of the ones below the water surface. One unseen symptom I was ashamed of back then and I am still embarrassed by today is “erectile difficulties.” I will call it ED because I don't want to have to keep writing out “erectile,” especially next to the word “difficulties.” Don't worry I'm not gonna go into detail, bit I will tell you it is not hard to talk about for me.

Important to this story is when I first found the iceberg image and downloaded it on my phone there was a woman I had been flirting with and wanted to date. During one of our early text exchanges, I accidentally texted the iceberg picture. Apparently in the excitement of the moment, combined with my tremor and lack of fine motor control, I somehow added the image to a text. I looked at what I sent and all of a sudden it seemed ED was in bold and capital letters, unlike the 20 other symptoms of around the iceberg. I quickly shot off a text saying I did not know from where that iceberg came.

Well I never heard back from her. I am not sure if it was because I was cold and icy, or the other thing, but it is not hard to figure out.