Adjust Your Dexcom Alerts - Don’t Let The Alarms Drive You Crazy!

[@kellyhulsey405]

You’re the most informative person when I’m stuck and need to know how to use the Dexcom g7. My Mom has no idea how to work her receiver and the app so thank goodness for your help 😊

[@DiabetesStrong]

You are so welcome!

[@starrtrails]

Thank you so much. The receiver was driving my whole family crazy and keeping me up at night! This kind of video is really helpful for new users and it is much appreciated!

[@DiabetesStrong]

Amazing! So happy to hear it helped solve the problem

[@ostong3792]

I’m

[@Sn00zn]

THANK YOU!!! My poor dog is terrified of the beep because it sounds just like our electric fence beep. You have helped (again!)

[@DiabetesStrong]

Happy to help

[@barbwilk100]

Hi!! thank you for your video. I was only able to watch part of it today and will be able to watch the remainder of the video after work. I was so happy to watch this as I just got my Dexcom and the alerts were going off all night and I ended up just shutting off the phone and receiver. Then I looked on a web sight and it said something about turning on the do not disturb on my phone, but then I will miss important calls especially from family. I look forward to watching the rest of this video tonight and now I can sleep through the night while also being available for calls if needed at night. Thank you. Your style of teaching works perfectly for me.

[@DiabetesStrong]

So glad you found the video and find it useful. Hopefully, this will help you get a full night's sleep

[@andreacabe9759]

Alerts were madding and I thank you for this video telling me how to turn them off.

[@DiabetesStrong]

Yes! I'm so glad it was helpful

[@Nita84]

Min søn på 5 år skiftet fra Libre til Dexcom på tirsdag. Vi glæder os til at kunne kalibrere. Tak for en hjælpsom instruktion 😉

[@DiabetesStrong]

Dejligt! Det med at kunne kalibrere har jeg efterhånden hørt fra en del. Jeg synes ikke jeg kalibrer ofte men er guld værd når sensoren er off. Håber du og din søn bliver glade for Dexcom 💙

[@aidan_drawin]

Sad I can't adjust the one thing I want. I understand why Dexcom doesn't want sensor wearers to turn off Urgent Low alerts, but I am a super light sleeper so even though it's on door bell (the least offensive sound) it is crazy loud and I jolt awake. WHY oh why can't they allow some volume adjustment!?!

[@DiabetesStrong]

It's FDA that doesn't allow the urgent low to be turned off on the CGMs, but I agree it is loud. And it can feel like I'm about to blow an eardrum when wearing headphones and it goes off 😬

[@christopherfett2554]

My wife has the Dexcom G6 and I have the follow app so she can share her readings while I am out of town. When an alert goes off on my phone, I cannot figure out how to silence or stop it from sounding. It is very frustrating when in a restaurant or other public place.

[@DiabetesStrong]

🤔 I’m not sure. Only thing I can think of is to silence the phone, but that’s reactive, so you’ll still hear the alarm

[@Una2Cold]

Same thing happens to me. I’m the diabetic though. I have my alerts silenced or on vibrate only and occasionally the high alerts goes off loud af! It happens when my phone is connected to Bluetooth and I’m listening to music too and the alarm blares out of the car speakers and makes me deaf… not to mention scaring the shit out of me sometimes… while I’m freaking driving!!! Sketchy

[@BioshadowX]

The 55 would be a fine value... if the device was actually fucking consistent. Instead being anywhere in my target range of 70 to 90 means the device could misread it as a low (when everything, from Omnipod meterr to even the el-cheapo walgreend meters has the value in the same 5 unit range)

[@Una2Cold]

Hey just wondering why you don’t use your high alerts? Do you have like phenomenal control? Or do you not worry about highs really? Also, great video, very helpful and informative. Thank you! Keep up the great content!

[@DiabetesStrong]

Thanks. A few reasons why I sometimes (not always) switch it off. I generally don’t have “surprise” highs and when it does go off it is usually after a meal if my insulin dose timing is off. They have improved the alerts with Dexcom G7 and you can now delay alerts, so that solves for the insulin timing alerts. But yeah, overall I find the low alerts most helpful

[@nanulove2324]

I see on reviews that sometimes the alerts dont go on because cell SYSTEM may not work. I advise always have a high blood sugar before going to sleep at night. Always have a diabetic manual meter on the side foe reassurance & emergency in case alarm doesnt alert u.

[@robertceliberti7175]

Very good video. I'm learning how to use my dexcom. I really like it.

[@thephotomedic3254]

So if I set the "High" alert to repeat 0 minutes, it will not repeat at all??..... I've come close to smashing this receiver against a wall because it notifies me that I;m high then tortures me going off every five minutes afterward until my BG starts to drop (which can take two hours sometimes) even in the middle of the night. Dexcom URGENTLY need to sort something out with these alarms because it's starting really affect my sleeping patterns etc. Once you acknowledge an alarm, you should be able to tell it not to alert you again for a set period of time. So annoying.

[@DiabetesStrong]

Set repeat to "Never" and it will only alert you once. Hopefully, this will help with your sleep

[@worthybookjourney3231]

I know this video is not current, however, I am hoping you will answer anyway. My son uses Dexcom/Tandem. When you say silence/turn off do you mean you are putting it on vibrate? My son is having extreme alarm fatigue. Everyone says you can turn off everything but extreme low. We have not found that to be true for him. He can "turn off" the sounding alerts but that thing buzzes him like crazy. We do not count vibrate/buzzing as 'turning off" the alarm. It is just a different version of an alarm. He cannot really even relax to sleep deeply for knowing this thing could go off any minute. And those times that (which are often it seems) it gets stuck on the line of a high or low and it moves back and forth for hours are maddening. The dexcom is often off 15-30 points so you really don't even want to treat it because it isn't actually needed. So when you say turn off do you actually only mean turn off the sound? But vibrate will still happen?

[@DiabetesStrong]

That is so frustrating, alarm fatigue is no fun. Has he switched over to Dexcom G7 yet? With G7 you can completely silence everything, including the urgent low, for up to 6 hours at a time. You go to alerts, click "Show Quit Modes" choose "Silence all", choose time duration, and click "Activate". For G6 it shouldn't be vibrating if you turn off the alarms (excluding urgent low, transmitter failure, and sensor failure alarms). You have to turn each alarm off manually by sliding the toggle to the left so it's no longer green. If it still vibrates I would give Dexcom a call and see if they can fix that.

[@lisamorales9012]

Thank you! I always learn something from you!!

[@DiabetesStrong]

:-)

[@psa10hunter94]

Alerts are extremely loud, how do you lower the volume? Thanks

[@DiabetesStrong]

You can change the alert sound but the actual volume will depend on how loud the volume on your phone is turned up

[@psa10hunter94]

On my phone, even if it’s on vibrate only the alerts are still really loud

[@DiabetesStrong]

@@psa10hunter94 the urgent low (55 mg/dl) is loud and will sound even when the phone is on silent. If the others sound even when on silent you might have to adjust your settings. Could be that the alarms are set to go off even when on silent. That’s the only thing I can think of

[@ChantalelovesK9]

I don’t even have settings in my app😢 I have glucose, history, connections and profile only

[@psdaengr911]

My night levels are low and my rate of change is low enough at night that I have a problem with Dexcom alarms. I'm still functional at 55mg/dL BG. When (not if) I get urgent low alarms I'm always above 80 mg/DL BG actual. I will ALWAYS get upset. My problem is if that continues I will become conditioned to ignoring a CGM that "cries wolf". - The problem with the FDA mandatory 55 alarm is it is based on fallacious reasoning. The CGM sensor is least accurate in that range. Using Dexcom's 20 rule, an indicated 55 could be 75 or 35. Using static for non-linear sensors, 1/4 of the time the alert would be unnecessary, and 1./4 it would be too late. Unless you I test every sensor for it's low range accuracy I can't trust it below 80 mg/dL (actual). - Unless coupled with pump I won't. I do a finger stick before bed, check the G6 reading to see if it matches (I'm always stavle then). I have an alarm set for 2 am, check then how I feel ( I stand up), BEFORE I read the Dexcom. - I've chose to eventually use G6 with a Tandem pump because the combination with either"IQ" software is supposed to keep the user well above the low limit. So I should be able to set an alarm to warn me long before getting anywhere near the urgent level.

[@DiabetesStrong]

I function at 55 mg/dl as well but I’ve learned (the hard way) that that doesn’t mean I should hang out at that level for long. I was sleeping with BG at around 60 mg/dl all night and would wake up exhausted. No wonder, as I would be burning through all my glucose deposits overnight. The point being I’ve learned to not “accept” running below 70 mg/dl for longer periods. But I agree with the issue around inaccuracy. It’s an issue if it keeps alerting you when you’re actually not low. Must admit it hasn’t really been a huge issue for me. Most of the time I’m actually low when it gets the urgent low readings… but I’ve also found that different people's experiences with Dexcom are hugely different

[@nanulove2324]

Very good on finger stick reassurance WISE!

[@jdog2302]

While there is some inaccuracy, I've read that there will often be differences in blood sugar levels in your blood compared to the interstitial fluid that your sensor is reading from (and that can be as much as 25-50 points). Remember to trust how you feel as well when taking into account your finger stick and cgm readings

[@brianbender8752]

I have the g6 why does mine show high low or falling instead of numeral readings ir changes back and forth I don't understand thanks

[@DiabetesStrong]

Hmm, that does sound a bit odd. You can try and check your settings but if it doesn’t show any glucose numbers you might have to contact Dexcom

[@karogallardo8209]

God thank you !!!!I haven’t slept cuz of the noise be making me stay up and worry all night

[@DiabetesStrong]

Oh no! Then I’m glad this video was helpful

[@StealPhantom]

Got the new G7 for my daughter and It doesn't seem to have the repeat alerts function which is bugging me. The g7 at the moment only alerts once when the suger is low/high and that's it. (Receiver)

[@DiabetesStrong]

Hm, interesting. I’ll try the G7 next year and will pay attention to that

[@TWIXXYT27]

My son received his G7 but setting it up on his phone it says if under 18 for guardian to do it so I'm setting it up on his name with our year??? On our phone we download the follow app or the same app G7???

[@DiabetesStrong]

I’m not sure what birth year to use, but I would try his and see if that works. For you to follow your son's blood sugar you’d download the follow app. Check out this video I made for G6 (I believe the methodology hasn’t changed) kzbin.info/www/bejne/aYqwd4GZpd-Sm68

[@TWIXXYT27]

@@DiabetesStrong Ok I'll try it and I had to use my year.

[@lisagifford3766]

Thank you!!!!

[@DiabetesStrong]

You're welcome!

[@donovang6911]

Any advice for turning down the volume when paired with hearing aids? It will BLARE the notification in my ears for urgent low. It isn't consistent either. I'm not sure what is happening.

[@DiabetesStrong]

I'm sorry I don't. I've had it go off when wearing headphones, and I'm sure it's not the same, but that's super unpleasant as well. It might be worth sending Dexcom an email, even if they don't have a solution, maybe that can help them make the appropriate changes for the next generation of CGMs

[@jdog2302]

I have the same issue. Often I'll wear earbuds and it'll blare into my ears over and over. Only recourse I've found is to set the alarm to a different alarm type, the door bell is much better than the original alarm

[@danielthommen8243]

My wife's receiver has a vibrating alarm that vibrates every few seconds when she is charging this thing with a USB cable. It basically alerts with vibration that she is charging it, even during the night when it is plugged in... How do I turn off the vibration and alarm for this thing, we really don't need to be alarmed when we purposely plug in a USB cable to charge it!?! Nothing to do with high or low glucose alarms, but this android device vibrates when we plug it into a USB cable to charge it....... On my Android phone i just turn off the vibration for specific apps, but on the android descom you cannot access the android setting, only the app settings within the app... ???

[@DiabetesStrong]

I’m not sure, I don’t think I’ve had that issue. Maybe there’s something wrong with her receiver, might be worth a call to Dexcom

[@waynot6280]

How I can make alert. No stop because when I am sleep i cant lesen

[@DiabetesStrong]

You can set the alerts to sound pretty much whenever you like. If you tend to not hear it, you can turn on the “repeat” function, that way it will alert more than once

[@lindasmith9072]

Thanks 😊

[@DiabetesStrong]

You’re welcome

[@rebeccahanson6941]

Mine will keep repeating even though have it on repeat every 3 hours. Even after I clear it.

[@DiabetesStrong]

That doesn’t sound like it’s working right. Might be worth giving Dexcom a call

[@p32819]

Very good. .

[@DiabetesStrong]

Thank you

[@p32819]

I travel out of 70-180 everyday and adjust as needed with tests -Dexcom can be wrong.

[@DiabetesStrong]

👏🏽That’s the way to do it in my opinion. Always confirm with a finger stick if the readings seems off

[@psdaengr911]

Guidelines are stated as goals, not edicts, One is to be within range a percentage of the time. That means that you won't be the rest of the time. Choosing to be conscious of your condition, learning to make and execute choices that tend make you "better" or "safer", those are more important than the exact numbers.

[@JoseDiaz-ph3ou]

My friend keeps getting the signal loss

[@DiabetesStrong]

😕

[@p32819]

I go out of 70-180 daily

[@DiabetesStrong]

I think a lot of people do. I have my upper limit set at 160 mg/dl so I usually react and correct so my blood sugars don't travel above 180 that often

[@psdaengr911]

@@DiabetesStrong Enjoy being active while you can. If there were good monitors that that could directly display excess energy expenditure like an insulin bolus, I believe that more folks with diabetes would choose to use exercize instead.

[@avalicupplaylists365]

My mother set my hypos as a crying baby in so bloody tired of it.

[@DiabetesStrong]

So that does sound annoying. You can change it...

[@tordb]

High of 160?! Sheesh

[@DiabetesStrong]

You do you

[@eyemphaydid]

No high alarms is a bad idea. Horrible advice.

[@DiabetesStrong]

I think you misunderstand what I’m trying to say. What I'm trying to convey is that you should set the alarms so that they are useful to you. I’m not saying turn them off if you need them