[Diabetes-Talk] Alarming at public events

Mon Apr 8 15:27:07 UTC 2024

I have to say, I agree with this first thing here. I, myself have been on
the Dexcom now for nearly five years. I did attend last year's DAN seminar.
And, quite frankly, It was not the "low" or "high" blood sugar alarms that I
found to be disruptive. I, too would rather be disrupted by those alarms in
particular. What I found to be disruptive were the multitude of phones that
were simply ringing and, in fact, as I recall, we even had a couple of folks
answer their phones/devices right there in the meeting. 

Not sure whether or not folks are aware that the "settings" within the
Dexcom app itself can be adjusted and vibrate as the need arises. As a
matter of fact, I share my Dexcom with both  my husband and my daughter,
which has saved my neck a time or two. My daughter uses voiceover on her
phone and has also learned how to adjust the "settings" within the Dexcom
app. There is, in fact, a way to silence the phone so that only the phone
will vibrate. But one can leave on the "critical alerts." You can even turn
off the "critical Alerts. In case most are not aware, if you have the
"critical alerts" running, the phone does vibrate. So, that if you don't
hear it, you should feel the vibration. I silence my phone all the time but
I never turn off my "critical alerts." I never leave my house without my
earbuds either. I use them as a courtesy in meetings and such. I also
refrain from the use of "speaker Phone?" I hear that all the time and not
just in meetings and seminars. That really gets under my skin.

Just some thoughts. 

Have a great day!

Bern

-----Original Message-----
From: Diabetes-Talk <diabetes-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of
Schlenker, Emily Devaris via Diabetes-Talk
Sent: Sunday, April 7, 2024 4:06 PM
To: Diabetes Talk for the Blind <diabetes-talk at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Schlenker, Emily Devaris <eschlenker at ku.edu>
Subject: Re: [Diabetes-Talk] Alarming at public events

Hello, I have a couple of thoughts from the perspective of someone who is
blind and is also studying in a health profession.
Number One, I am guessing that there are people in all stages of their
diabetic journey, and for a lot of them who are just getting started, there
are a lot of new things to which they must get accustomed. Monitoring one's
blood sugar accurately and consistently is probably intimidating and may
come along with other difficulties related to an adjustment to
blindness/assistive technology or learning to deal with a labile disease. I
present this as my first concern, because I don't think the majority of
people want to be disruptive or want to feel exposed while they are
struggling with the above.

Number two, I can tell you that I would rather be disrupted than have a
peaceful meeting only to discover that someone is in dire straits from a
very low blood glucose.
All of that is to say that I am not sure that there is one solution for this
problem.
To be fair, I do not have direct experience regarding how much seminars are
disrupted, either.
I think that as long as the diabetes action network gains new members, this
will persist.
These are my immediate thoughts, and it sounds like the practical side of
this has been well addressed by others giving headphone recommendations, so
I will sign off and return to studying.
Kind Regards,
Emily Schlenker
P2 Student KU School of Pharmacy

-----Original Message-----
From: Diabetes-Talk <diabetes-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Gary
Wunder via Diabetes-Talk
Sent: Sunday, April 7, 2024 12:26 PM
To: Diabetes Talk <diabetes-talk at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Gary Wunder <gwunder at earthlink.net>
Subject: [Diabetes-Talk] Alarming at public events

One of the things discussed at last year's meeting of the diabetes action
network at our national convention was the difficulty with alarming from CGM
devices that takes place during public meetings. While we certainly want to
be notified when our blood sugar runs low or high, how do we manage the
frequency of noise that is generated in public events, especially those with
a large number of blind diabetics? This may be an agenda item we can discuss
at our Knowledge Is Sweet seminar, but only if we have good ideas. I know,
for example, that if I wear an Apple Watch, the watch will vibrate rather
than my phone. I also know that I can go into the Libra application and
temporarily disable alarms if I am confident that my blood sugar will not go
low or high.

Please share any thoughts you have about how you would go about handling
this situation. Your contribution may well make a big difference at the
seminar. Thank you.

Gary Wunder

gwunder at earthlink.net <mailto:gwunder at earthlink.net>

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