Soop`s superbly supportive,caring and fun loving Kitchen.

Popped into the kitchen for quiet and cake and to offer best wishes to soop for Wednesday. Also so sad to hear about your special friend.
Thank you panache for your comforting post. My favourite praise poet is Christina Rossetti.
Welcome to 1inamillion. Warm wishes to everyone else, struggling to keep up, please accept positive/sympathetic thoughts as appropriate.
Going to snuggle on the sofa with the lovely lemon drizzle, a cuppa and ignore the noisy arrival of storm Gareth. Wishing you all a good night.

Love and hugs for you soop and also for macs if I am allowed to offer them. Thanks to baggs for keeeling us updated.

We do know how lucky we were with the Lights. When time allows I will attempt to post a photo or two. We returned to find one of our daughters in law has been quite poorly following surgery so may be focused elsewhere for a while.

Be careful out there everyone.

Dear soop, I hope you are back home safely after your wonderful weekend visit. I'm so sorry to hear about the unexpected death of your friend, you must be very upset.
However, you must be your usual strong, positive self now, ready to cope with your time in hospital. We will all be cheering you on.
Much love and best wishes to you both,
Lona/Chris xxx

FYI, Charley, if you really want to exercise, there are some chair-based exercises on YouTube. I had a go at some of them several months ago and am just recovering now.

Thinking of our dear soop, and Macsporran too, as she heads off for her surgery. Good to know it was a happy family weekend but also sad to hear about the sudden loss of her good friend. Thank you baggs for keeping us posted.

We’ll all feel the absence of soop until she’s well enough to be back in her usual spot here in the kitchen. It’s good to know that there are many who will “keep the home fires burning” in the meantime. Sending good wishes to everyone, particularly those grappling with the big stuff of life x

And panache your poem is deeply touching, you have poured your heart and soul into your words

Dear All. Have been scrolling backwards and trying to catch up. Good grief, so much going on for so many of us. My warmest wishes to all who've had bad news or facing difficulties.
What a beautiful kitchen this is.
There are so many people whose posts have struck a chord: I could write a shopping list of names!
So I shall content myself with saying that I wish everyone well today and send my sympathy to those who are struggling.
And soop whose kitchen it is after all, you touch so many hearts. Will be lovely when we hear that your surgery is out of the way.
to all

baggs thank you for giving us news of dear soop. What a shock it must be. I can only echo what others have said soop and you now need to focus your energy on yourself.
grannyqueenie I have been a worrier all my life. No sooner is one problem solved, within seconds I am worrying about something else. ?
corner I am sooooo envious. DH and I went to Norway this time last year in search of the Northern lights. It was cloudy ?. Lucky you. I bet it was magical.
panache I love your poem. Thank you so much for sharing it.

Oh dear, so much sadness here at the moment. Easy to say 'think positively' but so much harder to do in reality. Dearest soop my heart goes out to you. There is never a good time to hear sad news but, as others have said, your focus at the moment must be on your recovery from Wednesday's operation. I hope it's a big hospital as we are all going to be there with you, drinking their machine coffee (yuck!) and queuing at the toilets Baggs tells us you had a good weekend with your family so hang on to those giggles and hugs, they are the best medicines for life. Don't worry about telling us what's happening there - you have sensibly inducted MacS in the art of Gransnetting so we will expect updates as and when he is able on the visitor(s) to the chalet, the view from the kitchen window and ... oh yes, the health of our beloved leader I'm sure I speak for all kitcheners when I say MacS is in all our thoughts too xx

Sepsis used to be known as 'blood poisoning'. My mum was forever saying 'Don't do/touch that or you'll get blood poisoning.' So, evidently there was an awareness of it, even in the dark ages. The other thing she was terrified of was 'lockjaw' - ie tetanus.

Soop deepest sympathy on the loss of your friend

A lovely poem Panache.

Thank you for all the information about sepsis - definitely something we need to know. We have a friend in hospital with it too.
Glad you had a good time in Leicestershire Soop and so sorry about your friend.
My very best wishes to you on Wednesday.

Group A Streptococcus is the bacterium which often starts off as an insignificant infection and then goes on to create havoc as Mamissimo and others have found. There is frequently a high death rate.

I have had Sepsis twice, both times in hospital following major surgery. The only symptom I was aware of was feeling cold....the ones that others could observe included very low blood pressure and low oxygen levels, tachycardia and sleepiness. I didn’t feel well!

I think it’s very easy to miss unless you are a switched on medical professional so I think it’s really good that the NHS is focussing on it.

We all need to be vigilant and to bother the GP when we can’t shake bugs off!

Group hug time I think....?

Thank you N&G, it was what my dear Dad used to call me when I was little, not that he was biased of course!

We do seem to be hearing more about sepsis, The Archers had a character who died of it sometime last year. She was young and succumbed very quickly, it was quite shocking. Programmes like that do raise awareness.
I wish Soop all the best for her op on Wednesday.
I have left a lemon drizzle cake on the kitchen table, have a cuppa and a good slice ☕️?

The problem is that sepsis can resemble a fairly ordinary infection that can go away on it's own. A good friend was extremely fortunate that he collapsed in the enrance lobby of a hospital where he was visiting an inpatient. He felt a bit rough and tired but he actually had no notion that he was ill, just that he needed to sit down and then he collapsed. It was 4 months before he left to go home and he had to be resuscitated three times during that period in hospital. He is still not as well as before the sepsis and it has been 5 years since it all happened.
No idea what you need to look out for but I suppose you just have to be vigilant. Low blood pressure is the key thing apparently and that can make you feel pretty ropey so it is no wonder our frirnd felt he had to sit down.

Our friend is quite a raconteur so I will share with you what he told us to introduce a sort of "lighter note" ! He told us that in the beginning he was so ill that he couldn't move or speak. At one point during that time two members of staff drew the curtains round his bed and one proceeded to measure him fom the top of his head to his heels and the other shaved him. He was convinced that they thought he was dead and were doing the necessary preparations and so he started blinking furiously so that they would realise he was still alive but they just didn't seem to notice. Then they pulled back the curtains and left the ward, leaving him in great confusion. It was quite a while before he was able to ask what the measuring was for and was told they needed to know his height so that they could work out his medication doseage and his BMI. They all laughed together in the end but it must have been awful for him at the time.
This is not intended to offend anyone and we know that sometimes it helps to smile!

They do strike suddenly. I recognise the symptoms in DH and ring 999 at once. He has had sepsis x3 over the past 3 years and prompt medical attention has saved him. I gather sepsis is treated with the same urgency as heart attacks nowadays.
Charleygirl you could probably do a form of pilates that does not require getting down on the floor.

I’m wondering why we are hearing so much about sepsis and septic shock at the moment. Is it becoming more prevalent, or was it always there, but we weren’t so aware of it? I’m certainly going to find out about the signs and symptoms. I think it’s important to do that, especially for people with impaired immune systems.

Sadly we are hearing more about Sepsis and Septic shock these days. Unfortunately they strike so suddenly and deaths cannot be prevented.

Indeed that news Baggs makes it even worse and extremely worrying.
Thank you for bringing us the news though, sad as it is.

Oh dear, it gets worse. At our age we do not go worrying our GP and instead self treat or in "soop's" friend's case, doing nothing.

Message from soop this morning is that her friend died of septic shock. It is felt that if the lady had seen her GP sooner about a stomach bug she might still be alive ?

synonymous that is the best and safest place for those thoughts to remain!

Panache that is a most beautiful and speaking poem. Thank you so much.