@CarlosLuis, my son uses an iPhone and Nightscout. I use Android.
On my end, I use NightWatch on Android, reading from Follow and Nightscout. For some reason, Follow does not seem to work right now for data acquisition by NightWatch but from Nightscout it works well.
With NightWatch I set 3 levels of alarms, very useful and flexible (you can have as many as you want really. I just choose to have 3 levels for Lows and three levels for Highs).Weirdly, this system works much better for me than the iPhone monitoring works for my son on his own iPhone…
Of course when Nightscout goes down you are out of luck. They I fall back on Follow, which frequently runs into trouble with one Android update or another.
The first year he was in college, this monitoring harness saved his life I think twice. So it paid off for us. Thank G_d his night Lows have been much better in the past two years (much less frequent, although still probably 4-5 nights a month).
@CarlosLuis You’ve gotten posts about Nightscout. If using Dexcom, you can also use their Dexcom Share app (I use this for my wife). I also believe Sugarmate can send info to another person, either with an open app or phone call. I use the phone call to myself to ensure nighttime notifications, but I believe they can go elsewhere too. I know there are other apps of similar nature to keep a loved one or friend informed of status. The trick is many require an internet connection which may not always be available so using one of those isn’t a universal answer; you may want to investigate two methods of contact.
To all who graciously replied and- Thanks. I may go with Dexcom share. The plus of Apple Health is that it records movement, HR, as well as blood glucose.
Not so far, but other stuff is demanding my attention right now. I’m hesitant about using Decom share as I would have to educate them on what really is an emergency.
Ever since I was on a long and heavy course of prednisone my blood glucose is not the fairly flat line I maintained for years.
What would seem the most useful to me is something that sends an alert to an outside source. Not necessarily your everyday low alert. I’m not sure what your settings are or levels but I have a different lower alert at night versus day. I don’t want to get woken up unless I need something at night. So I’m not sure you would want them to get all your alerts but maybe just critical lows or highs to be able to call you to make sure you are okay?
I have an iphone and I don’t have nightscout, but I vaguely remember setting up different alerts when I tried it. I wonder if you can set up an urgent low alert on it alone that they share? Your idea of having a separate android phone for that might be the only way for that to work as it’s a nightscout ap for android and different for iphone. I have a tendency to think aps won’t share data/info easily between different phones. And I would not want loved ones waking up to alerts repeatedly. That’s why a separate low alert or major high for them alone might be better.
But I’m not sure that BG alerts is the only thing you are asking? There are medalert systems that seem like a good idea if you live alone. Some alert with falls or inactivity etc. The systems are different in what they monitor. Then there also are aps that you have to check in once a day or they will send an alert to someone. Besides blood sugar alerts, BG alerts might catch other events too in a different way with maybe a delay? They all could help at least with getting care for your animals in case something happens to you.
Unfortunately if you are not touching bases with someone daily, every single day there is no way to know if something happens to you unless you use medalerts or aps.
(Image 1: screenshot of Sugarmate “urgent low SMS” settings. It reads, “Receive a text message when Rachel’s glucose value is urgently low.” An urgent low glucose level slider allows the user to select the low level to send the text message, defaulted to 55 mg/dl. A button under “Active Contacts” lets the user “Add a Mobile Phone Number.”)
(Image 2: screenshot of Sugarmate “low glucose call” settings. It reads, “Receive a phone call when Rachel’s glucose goes below a chosen glucose value during your configured sleep hours.” A glucose level slider allows the user to select the low level to activate a phone call, defaulted to 70 mg/dl. Sleep Hours can be adjusted, and are currently shown as set to 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. A button under “Active Contacts” lets the user “Add a Mobile Phone Number.”)
I’ve given up on finding apps are whatever and have decided to to the following.
I have 2 cousins living nearby, one son lives in town 25 miles away, the other 2 further. Yes there are 4 but that one in non responsive.
I am going to give my cousins keys to the front door. My sons will have a list of my medical in case of emergency numbers including the cousins.
Every morning I will text a short message like, “I’m up and vertical.”
With 3 family deaths in 3 months 2 younger than me and now the sudden death of Linsey Graham 5 years younger than me - well I don’t want to be morbid, but if I go, may my body be found sooner than later.
As to dangerous lows, I am so used to taking care of those, before they get really bad - well I could be over confident, but …
CarlosLuis that sounds like a really sound plan. It keeps people who worry about you in the loop while still allowing your independence.
I know about 5 people who had those fall/no movement devices that all failed so were useless in the end. I’m sure for others this is not the case.
Well, I wear a fall device(Apple Watch) about 22 hours. It has to be charged every morning. I may put my local son to contact. It has worked several times idiot on a bicycle and most recently stumbling over Manny cat when I was in a hurry. As I wasn’t hurt I dismissed them.
To be fair in two of the cases that I mentioned the device was removed prior to showering, the person fell, broke bones and died a while later.
I considered it a device failure due to the fact that the person fell while showering and I thought it should be water resistant at least due to the nature of the device.
As these devices are waater resistant and water proof and a lot of falls are in the bathroom, the failure in this case is operator error or s lack of proper training.
There are companies that offer remote monitoring, including real-time remote monitoring, to physicians:
When I was trying to get an endo (I was “too well controlled” to need an endo at the time) I encountered one of these, indirectly; I went to the local endo provider recommended by my previous endo practice (who would no longer treat me) but the person I encountered (not a physician) was very insistent that my Dexcom setup had to connect to the remote monitoring system they used. Indeed “very insistent” all round.
That was not going to work for me but that kind of endo might work for you. In essence you never see the endo; everything happens remotely and the remote system tells the endo, or more exactly the endo’s many PAs, how to treat you. According to the PA I encountered this includes emergency services when you go low. Something like the PA gets woken up at night, 'phones 911, goes back to sleep and bills your insurance. I’m somewhat cynical about this stuff but it might work for you and, who knows, me in the future.
Yeah. Linking a CGM to two 'phones is something I did in the past with Dexcom but it is not easy (with Dexcom) and it required a particular hack in xDrip+ which was later removed. I used it with my wife’s 'phone, so she could see my BG early in the morning without waking me up. I do that with NightScout now; her 'phone runs something (I thought it was NightWatch, but that is Android) to connect to my server.
The difference between the two is that the CGM direct connection requires being within a few feet of the CGM whereas the intermediate connection via the internet requires an internet connection on both ends (me and my wife) but works anywhere. When she is in Taiwan I get a LINE if my BG goes low…
xDrip+ has a somewhat intermediate mode which I still don’t understand called “Desert Sync”; it allows two people hiking in a desert to remain connected even if there is no internet. It uses either bluetooth or wifi. 'phones cause the app to use much more power for wifi than bluetooth so Desert Sync can potentially maintain connection over a longer range; hundreds of feet rather than tens. Still, that would help if I feel down an unexpected arroyo.
