Dizziness in diabetes

Humpty Dumpty was clear: ‘When I use a word... it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.’1 Did his doctors know what he meant? I didn’t when my patient said she was mazy (dizzy or confused) and merligoes (vertigo) would have baffled me completely. Dizziness is a common and vague symptom. Synonyms for dizzy include: giddy, unsteady, light-headed, faint, weak, weak at the knees, shaky, wobbly, off-balance, reeling, staggering, tottering, teetering, woozy, with legs like jelly, with rubbery legs, dazed, confused, muddled, befuddled, bewildered, disorientated, stupefied, groggy, woozy, muzzy, dopey, woolly, woolly-headed, not with it, discombobulated, a feeling of dysequilibrium or vertigo. Dictionary definitions are: • Dizzy: ‘Having a sensation of whirling or vertigo in the head with proneness to fall; giddy.’ • Vertigo: ‘A disordered condition in which the affected person has a sensation of whirling either of external objects or himself and tends to lose equilibrium and consciousness; swimming in the head; dizziness; giddiness.’2