But Frank! It would be so easy for your wife (or Hal's) to hook that bad boy up to your belt and "yank your chain" to get you back upright. I have your best interests at heart.
Going to a rheumatoid doctor will help, so glad your going. I have hubby install-very easy extra high commode seats. This helps take pressure off the body and help rise better . I have a pillow in recliner that also helps me inn ot sitting too low, when its time to get up. My knees last month or two hurt really bad, and doctor will probably do x-rays next.
A nice device and probably handy too. Gotta admit though Lon. At first glance it looked like a soap on-a-rope then I looked closer and saw what it really was. I can just see in my mind’s eye a very frustrated and panicked half blind elderly citizen desperately trying to press the button on his soap-on-a rope instead of the gadget.
I need to get off my butt and get an Apple Watch with the one-touch 911 feature. It only costs $10/month to add to my Verizon account as a stand-alone phone, so after a year or two it's paid for itself, compared to those other services. And I have the added benefit of a wrist phone. If I have an issue out here all by myself, I'm in trouble.
You will be ever so glad that you did, @John Brunner ! It does so much for helping me keep track of health conditions and activity, as well as knowing that if there in an emergency, I can call for help, it just gives me a lot of security. Even one of those neck things like Lon has would be better than nothing, assuming that it could call somewhere to get help for you. I think that Lon said his just alerts the people at the assisted living, so you would need something that worked over a much longer distance.
I need to go to an Apple store and talk to those folks. The nearest one is 40 miles away. I'm not sure if buying a used watch and a used phone solely to drive the watch are the right thing to do in the long run. But I really don't want to learn a new phone O/S. And with all the "gotta have the latest stuff" in the Apple community, there must be tons of used stuff to be had at decent prices.
What about a Fitbit smart watch ? I think that @Beth Gallagher said that she liked her Fitbit better than her Apple Watch , so it might have the same capabilities, and also work with the phone that you already have ? Beth should be able to tell us about the features of her Fitbit, and that will help with the comparison. After some googling , it appears that Fitbit does not have a fall detection feature, but both Samsung and Garmin do have it on some of their smart watches, @John Brunner . I think that if you do some research into the capabilities of some of the other smart watches, you can find one besides an Apple Watch that does what you want. Of course, I still think that an Apple Watch is the very best one to have….. https://weartotrack.com/smartwatches-fall-detection/
Thanks for the research, Yvonne. The feature I was hung up on that non-Apple watches do not have is the 911 Button. The Android-based phones will call emergency contacts but not 911. I do not know if 911 can be set up as as emergency contact. Regarding "working with the phone," I want a watch that can function as a stand-alone telephone so I can wear it around the house and as I'm outside working on my property. I've lost (and found) my cellphone a few times out there. I mentioned getting a used Apple phone solely because you need a compatible phone to set up the watch's features, if I understand correctly. If the other guys had the one-touch 911 call button, I'd already have a phone.
I am pretty sure that if you actually got the Apple Watch and an iPhone, you would then wonder why it took you so long to convince yourself to get one, @John Brunner .
The way it looks, the Apple watch can be trained when it comes to emergencies. I do a lot of outside work and early on, the watch would think that I took a fall when I’d use my left hand to bump something into place or when using an axe. When it thinks I take a fall then a screen appears with a couple of options. One is to call emergency and the other is “I did not fall” and of course, if you do not choose either it will automatically call 911. By trained I mean that in a short period of time the watch “learned” that I’m working so it no longer goes into emergency mode over small jars or bumps. Also, when I have an activity punched in like “strength training” the watch is a little more lenient but that said, if for any reason there is an emergency then all one has to do is to tell Siri to call 911. Like @Yvonne Smith wrote, it’s a wonderful watch and I couldn’t ask for anything better especially because it’s cellular and I can just leave my phone behind and rely on my Dick Tracy watch.