Howdy Everybody.

I know this is the weekend when people are busy with family, turkey, and football but I have a question if you have time before that turkey coma hits.

My dad is taking a new medication on a new schedule. The schedule includes taking the medication several times a day and it's very important for him to not miss doses.

He is finding it difficult to remember to take the daytime doses that don't fall at mealtimes.

He doesn't carry his cell phone when he is at home. He also has a hard time reading small print and hearing high or quiet sounds. A typical digital watch alarm is too quiet and too high pitched for him to hear.

Does anybody have experience with apple watches or other wrist-worn devices? Are they able to sound loud and lower pitched alarms or even vibrate to remind the wearer to take medicines?

Does anybody have a better idea for a method to help remind a person to take medicines?

Other information:
He and his wife live together with no other family in the home nor within a 30 minute drive.

He typically leaves his cell phone "in the kitchen" when he is at home. I don't know why.

His wife relies on him to remind her to take her own medicines and is not in a position to help him with his meds.

I am not able to meet with him nor go to his house and I can only contact him once per week (aren't second marriages fun for the kids?!) so the solution has to be something that can be sent to him and work right out of the box or explained easily over the phone.

Thanks for y'all's help and ideas.

Happy Thanksgiving!

My dad uses Alexa, sets alarms.

If he has an iPhone and Apple Watch, you can set up alerts that will go to the watch. Can be helpful if it's multiple different ones.
https://www.myhealthyapple.com/set-up-medication-reminders-on-your-apple-watch-and-iphone-with-the-health-app/

You could also go simple and just set up recurring alarms on the watch. I think you can label each one too. But the one above will also make a record that he actually took it.

An Apple Watch would be perfect for that.

I'd love to hear more about not being able to contact him. His wife won't let him talk to you?

When my dad was earlier in his dementia we would load up one of those pill boxes with the little cubes to place medication.

We then numbered the cubes.

Then I scheduled text message reminder. "Dad make sure your take your medicine right now. Take the pills in the #5 spot. Put the medicine box back next to the coffee pot, love you."

I used email to text and scheduled the emails. Look up the phone number for the format. For example Verizon is the phone # @vtext.com. 5551234567@vtext.com

There are more options for scheduling now then way back then.

Taking care of parents is tough. You may have just have to make phone calls to remind him to take his medicine.

We ended up having to call for reminders after a while. My mom was there in the but she started shutting down because she couldn't deal with my dad's decline.

I wish you patience and rest.

Seven Costanza said:

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An Apple Watch would be perfect for that.

I'd love to hear more about not being able to contact him. His wife won't let him talk to you?

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Unfortunately, that's correct. Put it this way, there are women out there who prove true the bad stepmother stereotype. She is one of them.

Being allowed to call him once a week is an improvement from the previous situation. However, he still does not communicate with my kids (his only grandkids): no answering calls nor texts from them, and no speaking to them when I put my calls with him on speaker phone.

It hurts but I accept his wishes and restrictions on our relationship. However, I don't want him to endure pain or die due to something as simple as missed medication doses. That's why I'm asking for ideas for ways of helping him remember to take doses on time.

Thanks for everybody's time and advice.

Please tell your families that you love them.

Are apple watch alerts loud? Do they have a vibrate option as well?