Dexcom G6 iPhone Alerts

Any solution/hack fix so far for the Dexcom alerts on iPhone? The only thing I want is my number on my Apple Watch…THAT IS ALL! Last night I got rudely awoken by my phone screeching for a “very low” alert.

I pay out of pocket for my sensors and Dexcom so after restarting them sometimes the readings are a bit wonky and will give false low alerts like this. I just let my Tandem take care of the pumping…but the Dexcom alerts are so annoying!

I have all of the alerts turned off in the app except the ones you can’t turn off. Do not disturb mode does NOTHING for these alerts. It overrides them by using the emergency bypass.

Would just like to hear what other people are doing to go around this (if anything). I like to have it on my watch, but if I can’t get around those stupid alerts I will have to remove it.

I just don’t wear my watch to bed. I use my pump if I need to see my sugar at night.
But then I very rarely go under 55 which is the only alarm you can’t turn off

I’m sure you know that the Apple Watch requires its paired iPhone to work. Dexcom has made noises about sending glucose values directly from the transmitter to the Apple Watch but that just has not happened.

In any case, whether you use the G6 receiver or the iPhone app, you can’t turn off the 55 mg/dL (3.0 mmol/L) alarm. It sounds like the source of your alarm irritation is false lows often occurring when you do a sensor restart and probably in the first 24 hours of an new sensor. I don’t believe that there exists any simple workaround to eliminate this.

To help moderate the poor accuracy common with a new sensor, I simply insert a sensor 12-24 hours before I put it into service. In other words, the newly installed sensor gets used to a new site before I depend on the values it produces. Good hydration is also important in the process.

The hazard you face in quieting the 55 alarm is the very real possibility of an actual 55 situation when you need to treat with glucose. That’s the same as not wearing a CGM at all. While you’ll certainly be happy missing all those false 55 alarms, you could risk ending up experiencing many hours of severe low glucose and some dangerous life-threatening triggers. It’s heart arrhythmias that I’m thinking about here.

One thing that you could do is to always insert or restart your sensors early in the day so that you have many daylight hours to get your sensor on track. Using sensible calibration techniques are important and written about many times here. You can TuD search for “Dexcom G6 calibration.”

I don’t see any magic bullets for your situation. Your ideal CGM is likely in the future.

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I use sugarmate to get my sugars on my Apple Watch face. Even though it’s a bit small. I want to see it without touching my watch. I use gloves at work so I can’t take things out of my pockets etc. I don’t want to touch my watch either.

So I have the dexcom ap and my sugarmate ap on my phone.
If you get an alarm on your phone, you won’t get one on your watch if your notifications for dex are off but sugarmate is sending the data.
It sends via calendar ap so there are no alarms

You can cancel the alarm from your watch tho if it’s in the next room, so you won’t hear it so loudly.

I keep my phone under a pillow so I don’t hear it so loud, but since on my pump, I don’t go low like that at night anymore.

Yeah I don’t usually go that low either with ControlIQ. The problem is I reuse the sensors until their maximum so sometimes it gives readings that are lower than what I actually am. Unfortunately being self funded I don’t have a choice.

Hi @Sugarkryptonite, Any tips on how you handle pump and/or phone alerts when in a group setting? I need them on, as I don’t feel the low. I need at least the lowest level beep. I’ve tried announcing it at the beginning, but I don’t like to do that everywhere. I also don’t like the looks.

Sorry Janine, I don’t. I’ve always had the pump on vibrate myself. Maybe putting the pump somewhere more sensitive on your body and keeping it on vibrate would be easier instead.

Hi!
Please to meet you!

I’m coming back on this topic to asks how to snooze urgent low glucose level on iphone.
My previuos phone was and Android and iti s was possible to disable all notifications keeping pressed icon app and setting proprerly. In this way the sounds was off but the sensor was connected.

Rigth now with iphone, I really don’t know how to do the same. I tried many time to disable sounds, notifications a nd so on but without good results.

Only drastic solution that I found has been to disable Bluetooth connections. In this way the sensor is not connected and urgent alarms doesen’t arrives.
Negative point is that, when you turn on again bluetooth the sensor needs some minuntes to reconnect and you canno’t read values during disconnection time.
Do you have any idea?

Thanks

I do a lot of meetings, presentations, and teaching.

So I get it!

It’s disruptive and embarrassing and irritating to have alarms in those settings. People will ask “are you alright?” If I’m starting a presentation and anticipate that I may have an alarm, (because I’ve just eaten and am trending low or high) I announce it off the top, as in:

“I am Michael. I am an iron man. I’m connected to technology that keeps me alive. If it beeps, that doesn’t mean I’m about to die, it’s just letting me know where things are, and sometimes I have to take action, like eat a candy. Don’t be alarmed”.

Sometimes I’m taken by surprise and did not announce it off the top. So I say something similar at that moment, and carry on. We can normalize our “uniqueness”. Other than a few previous patients, I don’t know a single other person with T1DM.

It’s not my problem if people are bothered by the alarm. And usually, if anything, they’re interested. This can be quite valuable if I’m teaching medical students or even physicians who often have very little idea about how all this works!

I’m a Dexcom ambassador. And tandem, too!

To snooze Dexcom alerts on an iphone:

  1. Unlock your phone
  2. Open the G6 app
  3. Click OK on the popup message

This will snooze the alert for 20 (I think) minutes.

When I attend funerals I quit the app. Quitting the app doesn’t affect the Bluetooth connection and the current number will appear in 5 minutes or less after opening the app.