Embrace watch: My seizure alert watch... - Epilepsy Research...

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Embrace watch

AmyBadd profile image
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My seizure alert watch finally arrived yesterday! We donated money to the crowdfunding for development so have been waiting nearly 2 years for the watch to arrive!!

It's still at the clinical trial stage, so not an approved medical device yet, but the idea is that hopefully it will pick up electrical signals in the skin before a seizure starts and if that fails it picks up the jerking movements associated with a seizure. It will alert me, and via an app on my phone send an alert to my husband's phone :)

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AmyBadd
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9 Replies
RD_RAB_2874 profile image
RD_RAB_2874

Hi there,

That's such a fab idea - I've been looking for a watch for ages, and this is the sign of one I actually need!

Many thanks x

Cazm profile image
Cazm

That's very clever, hope it works for you 😀

hi that's amazing, may I ask how you got the ball rolling to purchase one. I really hope this works for you...Lisa

AmyBadd profile image
AmyBadd in reply to

Like I said, we donated to the original crowdfunding campaign online when it was first in development a couple of years ago. However, if you search for embrace empatica I'm sure you'll find out about how to buy one now. I imagine there will still be a bit of a delay as they are still catching up with all the early orders.

In bad news, I had two seizures this week. In good news, my watch detected one of them! (It didn't detect the other because it wasn't connected via Bluetooth to my phone at the time, which it needs to be) I have also only had one false alarm so far.

Aimo4 profile image
Aimo4

Hi Amy,

I'm also an Amy!!! I was wondering how you are getting on with the watch? My husband works away from home during the week so I'm alone, or with my two children (5&8yr olds) all of the time.

I was wondering about this watch just to give us peace of mind that if I were to have a fit, he'd be alerted and could then contact a friend to see if they'd be able to come and check on me/help me?

I was only diagnosed in early December so it's all new to me!

Amy x

AmyBadd profile image
AmyBadd in reply to Aimo4

Hi Amy.

I've actually had no more seizures since the 2 back in October but I wear my watch everyday. It definitely gives my husband peace of mind which is helpful as he has severe anxiety anyway.

The watch does give false alarms sometimes but I just text my husband straight away to let him know I'm fine. This generally happens for me when I am pushing my son's pushchair.

I realised I was wrong in what I said in my original post, the watch is currently unable to detect seizures before they happen although they hope to do this in future. It is now registered as a regulated clinical device in Europe though!

woden-1 profile image
woden-1 in reply to AmyBadd

Hi, this watch sounds brilliant. Can I please ask if you've had any or many more false alarms with it? As my best friend has epilepsy and lives in the neighbouring town to me and so would be real uselul, as I often worry when he's out walking the dog by the river etc BUT he cannot read or write so texting not an option and phoning could be a pain / expensive if there a lot of false alarms. Thanks, Kind regards, Ronnie.

AmyBadd profile image
AmyBadd in reply to woden-1

Hi,

I get quite a lot of false alarms but only when I am doing certain activities. I am currently working part time and on the days I am off with my son I might get 3 or 4 from pushing his pushchair along the bumpy pavements. I also occasionally get them when mashing up food for him to eat. I very rarely get them for any other reasons so days when I am not with my son much I usually don't get any. Other people have said they get them riding bikes, for example.

So I think it kind of depends on whether he does an activity that is likely to make it have lots of false alarms.

All alerts get recorded on your phone app and you are supposed to register them as false alarms if they are. This information gets sent back to the company so that they can keep making their computer programs better at telling the difference between true and false alarms.

Hope this helps xx

peter-o profile image
peter-o

HEY! I have had one of the Embrace wristbands too! (Though the period for mine expired and it just wasn't renewed then...(my brother's family had gotten it for me, trial period or whatever also)). My trial period expired a little after I'd had surgery anyway... "conspiratorially thinking" or whatever also due to the conjoined time period of expiration/surgery has been in my mind now also... but anyway I'll try to put a photo of mine in my member page...

(After you'd given me a thumbs up on 10/08/2017 I decided to visit your page 😜 and your Embrace grabbed my attention)