Waggy Tales

Wednesday 17 October 2018

The return post strikes again!

So there seems to be a recurring theme.

I seem to have a little while away from blogging and then come back with a return post.

Guess what?

I'm doing it again!

I know I know, but unfortunately that what happens when you have a disability such as Osteogenesis Imperfecta.

Bones break, which means lots of time at the hospital and time in plaster, resting.

However, all that been said, we are still here and are determined to keep going with the blog.

I do keep the Instagram and Facebook page updated regularly, so if we are ever missing, be sure to look there for an update.

In terms of what has been happening, you can read from my previous post that I had an operation in June and that the bone graph didn’t take.

Unfortunately, things haven’t changed much since my last post, my femur and tibia fractures are still not healed, meaning I’m in a lot of pain and now my orthopaedic surgeon has broken his ankle so is off on long term sick, which leave me very much in limbo.

When he returns I will be having further surgery but until then it’s just a waiting game.

On a brighter note, Lottie is great and is now 7.

She is still up to plenty of mischief and loves a good belly tickle.

Before things went a little manic, I had some blog posts (including reviews from companies) half wrote, so you will see those coming soon.

We look forward to re-joining with you all.

Love Jessica and Lottie

So we return.......

Well, Hello.

It seems ages since I said that on here (probably because it is) and we sincerely apologese for that. Unfortunately having Osteogenesis Imperfecta can make life unpredictable due to fractures, operations etc, and that's what exactly happened here.
So sit down, grab a cup of coffee (or iced water in this weather) as this will be a long one!
As some of you may know, who follow us on our Facebook page, I had an operation last July 2017, to replace the metal rod that is in my femur. Just as things were getting back to normal, I rolled over in bed and had a spiral fracture of my femur, the same leg I had operated on.
I spent four weeks in hospital and was discharged on Christmas Eve (yippeee) I was so glad to be home for Christmas.
I had a quiet Christmas with Lottie and family and did plenty of resting in the hope that the fracture would heal.
Unforutenyl after many hospital appointments between January and April, the fracture was not healing as expected and it was decided by my surgeon that he would need to carry out surgery to do a bone graph with synthetic bone, and replaced the broken screws.
The surgeon wanted to do this in April, however, I'm currently doing my Master's at Universtiy and wanted to sit my exams before surgery, as I have such a good relationship with my surgeon who I've known since I was 2 he agreed, on some strict instructions!
I had the surgery on the 13th of June and despite it being a bigger operation than we all first thought, with IV morphine and other painkillers I was recovering well. The only complication I had was a rare reaction to the synthetic bone, which made my leg extremely swollen, I was assured this would go down. The only problem this caused is I was too wide for my electric wheelchair (which was on loan) so we had to contact the wheelchair services to get the next size up, this meant I was able to be discharged until this arrived.
However, 12 days later I developed a UTI which turned into Sepsis. It was a very scary time for us all of us and I became poorly quite quickly. I was immediately put onto IV antibiotics, fluids, and paracetamol.
I was quite poorly for a few days but the antibiotics showed slow signs that things were improving. I had 8 days IV antibiotics and it was then decided the IV version would be stopped and we would watch and wait.
During the time on the antibiotics and even when I had finished them I felt awfully sick all the time and the thought of food was horrible. This was blamed on the antibiotics and the sepsis.
I spent another week feeling sick and slowly trying to get myself better so I could go home.
The day we meant to be coming home, I woke up been very sick and had diarrhea. This was later diagnosed as C Diff, which was caused by the antibiotics. C Diff is basically an extreme case of sickness and diarrhea as the IV antibiotics I had for the sepsis had killed all my good bacteria in my gut meaning the bad bacteria could thrive and grow. This meant I needed a further 10 days of oral antibiotics to cure the C Diff. However, once the symptoms had eased I could go home on the antibiotics, and carry on to recover home.
I was discharged from hospital on the 8th of July, a long month after I was admitted.
Since being home things, I am still in a lot of pain due to the fracture but at least I am in my own environment.
I did go back to see my surgeon on the 13th of July, and it wasn't the best of news as the synthetic bone that was inserted hasn't mineralised yet as it should, but we are just waiting and seeing what happens when I go back to see my surgeon on the 4th of September.
So as you can see, this is why I haven't been updating our page. Now I'm home and feeling slightly more human despite the pain, I'm hoping to get back to updating you guys regularly. Also, thank you if you got this far, I know its a long post but wanted to explain in full what had happened so it didn't look like I was abandoning you guys.
Here are a few pictures of us over the last few months.
Speak soon,
Jessica (and Lottie of course) xxx

Neoh & Nobo

Firstly this review needs to begin with a BIG apology.

Neon & Nobo (and a few other brands) kindly sent us some goodies for review. Unfortunately mum had a fracture just after they were sent and then went to see her surgeon who has put her on the waiting list for her femur operation, so we have spent lots of time at the hospital. That coupled with having a new adapted car, and Lottie having a lump on her tail has meant mummy has been rushed off her wheels! We are slowing getting round to them though!

Anyway back to the review.

We were so excited to discover we were one of the first doggie blogger to receive the brand new treats from N eoh & Nobo.

Who are Neoh and Nobo?

Walkies with a wheelchair

Well it looks like summer is finally on it's way! Any dog owner's favourite time of year.

For those of who that don't know we live in quite a rural area, and their are lots of doggie friendly countryside walks - however very few are wheelchair accessible.

I suppose this is something that many of you may not even think about. When you put your walking boots, pick up the lead and open the door, you don't even consider if the place is accessible.

Unfortunately for somebody who uses a wheelchair like me - this is one and mainly the only thought that crosses your mind when you open the door.

My wheelchair just isn't made for rough grass or wild woodland. Which can really limit where we go.

At the moment i'm the process of getting a new adapted car and new wheelchair and i'm hoping to get an attachment that will mean I will be able to go over grassland much easier - of course with all these things comes cost and when your an adult funding is very limited - I don't have a spare £7000 for the cost of the new chair and attachment stashed under my mattress. Im on the hunt though and I will reach the amount - these things just take time.

In the mean time, we make the best of a not so good situation. There are a few doggie walks with nice countryside views that do have paths for my chair. Our favourite is a lovely little brook walk about 1 mile from our house.

Our Happy Place

After my recent surgery my mum has been walking Lottie, and it's something I really miss.

Today, however was the first time me and Lottie managed to get out together and we headed for our favourite spot - the brook!

We had a fantastic time and Lottie loved running through the grass, whilst I wheeled along side her on the path.

So Lottie can have a little more freedom, I use a Flexi Lead. I know these are very conversational in the dog world. But trust me they are a god send for wheelchair users, in my opinion it's the owners that make the lead sensible to use and I always have full control over Lottie.

You might think this blog post is a long woe is me post, believe me if you knew in 'real' life you would know that isn't the case at all! I started Lottie's blog four years ago now (where does time go!) to raise awareness of my disability Osteogenesis Imperfecta, and to achieve this I want you to all understand fully exactly what having a disability is like! I hope I have opened your eyes a little...if not at least their are some cute photos at the bottom! (But please remember don't take granted what others wish for!).

Of course this walk gave us the opportunity to take plenty of photo's and we thought we would share some of these with you below.

Until next time.
Love Jessica and Lottie xxx

Wellybix Dog Biscuits Review - Malted Milk with Oats

We have reviewed one of Wellybix products before when we were sent the Bake-A-Bone to review, however the lovely Alison kindly sent us a new line of their biscuits for Lottie to taste test.

Now when it comes to biscuits, Lottie is their straight away. What dog doesn't love a good biscuit. However, you can get biscuits and then you can get good quality biscuits and thats exactly what Wellybix biscuits are.

Who are Wellybix?

Wellybix are a UK company based in Teeside. The company, who is run by Alison, and of course chief taste tester Welly the Jack Russell. They sell a range of handmade dog biscuits, their Bake A Bone boxes as well as a range of accessories all dogs need. All of her biscuits are homemade, and some of the ingredients even come from her own garden. All the ingredients contain no artificial colours, preservatives or flavour enhancers and have been approved by a veterinary laboratory.

What did we receive?

Wellybix currently have 11 different flavours of dog biscuits for you to purchase, so there is sure to be a flavour to suit your dogs taste buds.

Their newest flavour is Malted Milk with Oats which is what we were kindly sent.

Each bag of biscuits contains 110g and are currently priced at £3.55 so they are great value for money.

They are handmade with simply ingredients - Wholemeal and plain flour, rolled oats, wheatgerm, malted milk, honey, skimmed milk powder, sunflower oil, water.

The biscuits are fairly large so are great for all breeds of dog, for smaller dogs like Lottie I simply break them in half, meaning you get even more for your money.

As soon as you open the packet you can really tell they are Malted Milk (they even smell like malted milk biscuit! Yum).

What the taste tester thought?

As soon as we received the package from the postman Lottie could not wait to open it.

She was not best pleased when I had to stop her taste testing them to take some blog photos (the life of a pet blogger hey).

Once she finally got her taste buds on them, she loved them. Lottie can be a little fussy at times but she took to these straight away and in fact wanted more. Greedy guts!

Lottie would highly recommend these hand baked dog biscuits and gives them a 5 out 5 in her paw rating. As for her human she also give them a 5 out of 5 rating, sometimes it's great when Lottie loves a product but then you find its full of the nasties, where as with these I know she loves them and I know they are great quality at the same time, that a winner in our book!

You can sniff Wellybix out of social media and their website as below:

Love Lottie and Jessica xxx

We received a pack of biscuits from Wellybix at no charge with no obligation to provide a review. All opinions expressed here are our own and truthful!

Our Cruft's Adventure in pictures, lots of them!

Its hard to believe Cruft's is over two weeks ago.

We are sharing these photos a little later than we would of liked due to my operation (more about than in a post coming soon).

We attended Cruft's on the Saturday this year (we wanted to go on Terrier day which was Thursday but I was at University so was unable to go). We also normally attend two days but due to my health we just went for the one day this year. Anybody that has been before will know, its such a large event you really need a week their let alone a day.

We got up super early (around 5.30am) so we could get there in plenty on time and to make sure we got close parking, anybody who needs disabled access, the NEC is fab, we parked really close to the venue and their are plenty of disabled toilets.

Lottie and I had special press pass so our first stop was the press office. Which was a little scary if I'm honest! Standing next to the editor of Dogs Today Magazine and little old me being their still seems suureal.

Once we got our press pass it was shops,shops and more shops. That's when we could get to them without being stopped by somebody. It amazed me how many people recognised us from our blog/social media sites and everybody was so delighted to meet Lottie. One lady even came running after us shouting LOTTIE,LOTTIE,LOTTIE.

It always seems a little surreal to me just how many lives our little posts and pictures affect.

I picked up plenty of new products for Lottie and have lots to share with you guys over the next few weeks. Lots of companies were great and give Lottie samples to try so thanks to all,the brands that did that.

We also meet up a few other dog blogger - Amandad and Lottie from A Spaniel Tail, Emma and Alfie from Alfie Bear and Becky from Blogger & the Geek.

And now for the photos of which I warm you their are lots.