Alarm systems for my 86 year old dad

Hi @rowantree . Welcome to the forum.
Sorry to hear of recent loss.
It must be difficult for your father and yourself.
It's quite a difficult question to advise you on. There are monitors which will give alerts but are generally expensive.
From what I understand of your problem one option that comes to mind is the Dexcom G5 Share CGM system.
It would mean your father wearing a sensor and it being calibrated daily via a finger prick test. The advantage with this system is it can be linked to upto 5 individuals with the appropriate apps. It may be something for you to consider. Apologies I can't give a lot more as it's not a system I actually use but I am aware of it.
A google search would offer more.

Hi @rowantree Welcome to the forum. I am tagging @tim2000s for his input on this system, which can be linked to a phone.

Best wishes J

rowantree said:

Hi Everyone
My first time on here so bear with me. My 86 year old dad has had type 1 diabetes for most of his adult life. We lost our mum to Alzheimers last month which might be contributing to his emotional state and he has also been diagnosed with Alzheimers as well . He has a neck alarm which can be used in the complex where he lives but he has been having regular hypos and one last week which resulted in him being hospitalised. He has his own diabetic consultant at the hostital and we are looking at his insulin dosage etc but I'm looking for advice about alarm and monitoring systems for him , in the flat and whilst he is out in town doing his shopping etc.
Any suggestions welcome.

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Hi Rowantree ,
Im 79 yrs a type 1 for 55yrs so I may know a wee bit about how your dad feels .
He seems. To be able ,and does his own shopping etc ,like me a bit set in his way ! Won't be keen on courses .There ,as far as I know ,not ,a technology that does what you require. Without high costs ,the simplest
and available on NHS is the Abbot Libre system . It has a sensor normally fitted ,lasts 14days ,on the upper arm A scanner ,supplied ,which can provide frequent readings giving the BG trends ,with arrows trends ,I have one and think it is terrific"
Unfortunatly it does not give audible alarm.
Wjo

Wjohn said:

Hi Rowantree ,
Im 79 yrs a type 1 for 55yrs so I may know a wee bit about how your dad feels .
He seems. To be able ,and does his own shopping etc ,like me a bit set in his way ! Won't be keen on courses .There ,as far as I know ,not ,a technology that does what you require. Without high costs ,the simplest
and available on NHS is the Abbot Libre system . It has a sensor normally fitted ,lasts 14days ,on the upper arm A scanner ,supplied ,which can provide frequent readings giving the BG trends ,with arrows trends ,I have one and think it is terrific"
Unfortunatly it does not give audible alarm.
Wjo

Click to expand...

There is a small add on you can by for the flibre that turns it into an alarm on your phone removing the need to swipe it. cant remember the name though,

The libre add on is called Blu-con.

Dear Elk ,
Wjo again ,regarding Blu-con ,sorry I was unaware of this .I have an apple phone ,iPhone 6 ,Will this Blu-con ,work on it ? if so how can I get it ?
Thanks Wjo

One thing to remember with the bluecon Xdrip+ is that it isn't waterproof, needs removal prior to bathing.
Once set up it appears to be a very good piece of kit. Not sure if it will alert carers .
@Scott-C is the go to guy for advice on this system.

therower said:

One thing to remember with the bluecon Xdrip+ is that it isn't waterproof, needs removal prior to bathing.
Once set up it appears to be a very good piece of kit. Not sure if it will alert carers .
@Scott-C is the go to guy for advice on this system.

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If ste up with Nightscout it will although Dex G% would be a easier alternative.

@Wjohn Im not sure on this system, I think it only works with Android?

Talks to your his doctor about what BG he should be aiming for, as at 86 year old, there may not be many benefits from tight BG control.

I can think of systems that combine a pump with a CGM so they automatically stop the insulin when BG gets too low, but is he able to cope with such a big change? Does the "care" complex he lives in have the staff that can correctly refill a pump etc?

Sorry, the point I was making is that by excepting more high numbers, the risk hypos can be reduced.

Sorry, this is a difficult situation

If hypos are a problem, are you sure that not getting confused due to silent night time hypos?

Have excluded other causes of cognitive impairment such as B12 deficiency, under active thryoid, high clacium levels (am sure these would have been done, but best to be sure)

Is he accidentally double dosing? one can get timesulin pen caps and some of the pens eg from NOvo have a memory function for last dose taken, but also seeing if his insulin stock going down at the correct rate.

Is he eating OK? Will carers in his residence check that he is eating OK?

Glucose monitoring is very difficult and a contentious issue; might the carers test for him when needed? This depends on the local policies and what the carers feel like rather than what the patient needs.

I totally concur with the comments above about the need to avoid hypos which will make the dementia progress more quickly IMHO (see Yaffe's work) and relaxing control.

best wishes

Wjohn said:

Dear Elk ,
Wjo again ,regarding Blu-con ,sorry I was unaware of this .I have an apple phone ,iPhone 6 ,Will this Blu-con ,work on it ? if so how can I get it ?
Thanks Wjo

Click to expand...

It can be bought for a one-off cost of £96 from www.ambrosiasys.com . It's just a small transmitter which is held in place on top of the libre sensor with a sticking plaster or armband (not waterproof so needs to be taken off for showers). I've had mine for about ten months now, it's working fine, just need to change the battery every couple of weeks.

Ambrosia do their own inhouse app for it, linkblucon, which has android and iOS versions.

I've not used the ios version, only android. It was ok insofar as it sent reliable readings to my phone every 5 mins, but it didn't have alerts and was generally quite a basic app. They've mentioned "notifications" but are vague about whether these are alerts or not. It, and the ios version might have been improved in the last few months so maybe worth a look.

I gave up using their app when an android app xDrip+ was tweaked back in September to take data from blucon. It's an excellent app - customisable alerts, predictions, calibration.

But there's no ios version. However, another developer has written an app based on it, iosxdripreader, and it seems he is now collaborating with a new kid on the block, spike-app, which is designed to run on ios and appears from screenshots to take data from blucon. It appears to be in development, you seem to have to ask to be "invited".

Link below, I've not tried it, so can't say whether it's good, bad or ugly, but maybe worth a look for die-hard Apple fans...or just buy an android and run xdrip+!

https://spike-app.com/#

There's a lengthy article about it here:
https://www.mtransmiter.pl/?p=763&lang=en

Here's the screenshot showing it lists blucon as a data source.

Not sure I'm allowed to post this but it may help. I'm working on a dead man's switch monitor for people with diabetes or other illnesses. It isn't out yet but will be very very soon and it'll be free with non annoying adverts. The link is deadline.live although I'm not sure this is applicable as he has alzheimers.

I have a main account here but didn't want my posts to be associated with this idea. Maybe this will get deleted who knows.

Either way good luck and I hope this or something else helps.

Dear Deadline.live ,
Obviously not sure of the convenience ,etc ., of this ,but if it can give an audible warning or vibration warning of going towards a low BG ,i e ,for me going lower than 4 ,it would be worth a look ,
Thanks ,Wjo

This sounds a fantastic piece of equipment, When and where will it be available and can you explain how it works please?

Wjohn said:

Dear Deadline.live ,
Obviously not sure of the convenience ,etc ., of this ,but if it can give an audible warning or vibration warning of going towards a low BG ,i e ,for me going lower than 4 ,it would be worth a look ,
Thanks ,Wjo

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Unfortunately that would require either linking to a libre in some way or another custom glucose monitor. Right now that's way out of my ability, sorry.

The only thing I could probably add is the ability to scan and track libre results and make guesses from that.

jaywak said:

This sounds a fantastic piece of equipment, When and where will it be available and can you explain how it works please?

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It'll be an app on Android only at the minute although apple will probably come soon after.

It'll be released very soon, it's almost ready I'm just testing it more to check it never lets people down.

Annoying I legally can't or shouldnt say too much other than the only thing you'll need right now for it is a phone and it's based on the idea of a dead man's switch. Obviously I'll write a lot more in detail when it's actually released if that's allowed.

I'm a diabetic myself and in my eyes it would make me feel a lot more comfortable. Don't want to hijack a thread just thought it may be useful for this situation.