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POGO Satellite Manual

5.7.3 Helping Children Who Grieve

5.7.4 Coping with the Holidays

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For those who are grieving, coping with the holidays is no small task. These suggestions will help to make your grief a little easier and your holiday season a little lighter.

Be with those who comfort you

Share your thoughts with someone you trust and are comfortable talking to. Trying to ignore the absence of a loved one can make you feel alone and depressed.

Acknowledge and accept your feelings

The holidays magnify our feelings of loneliness, bitterness, anger, frustration and depression. All of the emotions you experience in grief are natural reactions to the death of a loved one. Don’t feel pressured to be joyful and celebrate; these may not be the feelings you are experiencing. However, don’t feel guilty if you do enjoy yourself.

Remember

Include your loved one’s name in conversation and share your memories. Remember the good times as well as the bad. Remembering is a very healthy and healing experience. You can laugh and cry as you remember times spent together.

Eliminate unnecessary stress

Don’t do anything that is extremely uncomfortable for you. If you don’t feel like putting up decorations, buying presents and going to places of worship, then don’t do it. Keeping busy only increases stress and postpones working through grief. Lower your expectations for the holidays and do what you can when you can.

Plan ahead

Make plans for the holidays, even if the plans have to change. It is more beneficial to plan than to just let it happen. You may choose to celebrate as usual, or you may:

  • Change the time of eating your traditional dinner.
  • Change the room to eat dinner in.
  • Go out for dinner to a restaurant or accept an invitation to someone’s house.
  • Change the menu from the usual (ex. cook ham instead of turkey).
  • Go to your place of worship at a different time or in a different location than you usually do.
  • Change the type and size of your holiday decorations and put them in a different spot in the house.
  • Change the time that you usually open presents.

Tears are not a sign of weakness, foolishness or lack of faith.
Tears are evidence of the capacity to care.

– Rev. Dale Turner
Disclaimer: Source Accuracy

You are welcome to download and save a local copy of this document in the Word and/or PDF formats provided. As the POGO Satellite Manual is subject to ongoing revisions and updates by POGO, we recommend you regularly check the online version posted at https://www.pogo.ca/satellite-manual/ to ensure you have the most up-to-date content. In the event of any inconsistency between the content of a local copy and the online version of the POGO Satellite Manual, the content of the online version shall be considered correct. Please see also the POGO Satellite Manual Disclaimer.

Record of Updates
Version NumberDate of EffectSummary of Revisions
18/24/2021Original version posted.
5.7.5 The Grief Experience
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In this Section

  • 1.1 History and Overview
  • 1.2 Acknowledgements
  • 1.3 Committees and Working Groups
  • 1.4 POGO Satellite Manual Disclaimer
  • 2.1 Principles of POGO Satellite Clinic Care
  • 2.2 Eligible Patients
    • 2.2.1 Children Eligible for Chemotherapy Administration in a POGO Satellite Clinic
    • 2.2.2 Children Eligible for the Management of Complications in a POGO Satellite Clinic
    • 2.2.3 Children Eligible for Supportive Care in a POGO Satellite Clinic
  • 2.3 Scope of POGO Satellite Clinic Practice
  • 2.4 Expanded POGO Satellite Clinic Practice
  • 3.1 Safe Handling, Administration and Disposal of Chemotherapy Agents
    • 3.1.1 Personal Protective Equipment
    • 3.1.2 Preparation, Transport and Storage
    • 3.1.3 Administration of IV Hazardous Drugs
    • 3.1.4 Administration of Oral Hazardous Drugs
    • 3.1.5 Disposal of Equipment/Personal Protective Equipment used to Administer Hazardous Drugs
    • 3.1.6 Safe Handling for Pharmacy
    • 3.1.7 References
  • 3.2 Accidental Exposure/Spills
  • 3.3 Extravasation Management
    • 3.3.1 Prevention and Management of Extravasations
    • 3.3.2 Antidotes and Treatments for Extravasation
    • 3.3.3 Sample Extravasation Documenting Tool
    • 3.3.4 References
  • 3.4 Injecting SC Medication Via an Insuflon
  • 3.5 Chemotherapy Administration Reference List
  • 3.6 Central Venous Catheter Care
  • 3.7 Chemotherapy Quick Reference
    • 3.7.1 Rapid Hydration
    • 3.7.2 Provider Guide: Prevention and Management of Irinotecan-Induced Diarrhea
    • 3.7.3 Capizzi Methotrexate
    • 3.7.4 Erwinia Asparaginase
  • 4.1 Management of Fever and Neutropenia
    • 4.1.1 Routine Order Sample Sheet
    • 4.1.2 Sample Fever Cards
    • 4.1.3 Criteria for low-risk designation. Risk categorization refers to risk of bacteremia and serious complications, including mortality.
  • 4.2 Pentamidine Administration
    • 4.2.1 Inhaled Pentamidine
    • 4.2.2 Intravenous Pentamidine
  • 4.3 Antiemetics
  • 4.4 Treatment of Varicella-Zoster Infections
  • 4.5 Immunization of Children with Cancer
  • 4.6 Transfusion
  • 4.7 Clinical Circumstances that Warrant Consultation with the Specialized Childhood Cancer Program
  • 5.1 Palliative Care Overview
  • 5.2 Communication
  • 5.3 Settings of Care
  • 5.4 Symptom Management
  • 5.5 End of Life
  • 5.6 When a Child Dies at the POGO Satellite Clinic
  • 5.7 Appendix: Sample Bereavement Materials
    • 5.7.1 Reconciling Your Grief
    • 5.7.2 Funeral Arrangement Checklist
    • 5.7.3 Helping Children Who Grieve
    • 5.7.4 Coping with the Holidays
    • 5.7.5 The Grief Experience
  • 5.8 References
  • 6.1 Goals and Objectives
  • 6.2 Participant Site Selection
    • 6.2.1 Tertiary Hospital Site Selection
    • 6.2.2 Community Hospital Site Selection
  • 6.3 POGO’s Roles
    • 6.3.1 PHIPA, Privacy and Research
  • 6.4 Funding
    • 6.4.1 Funding Support for Tertiary Hospital Activity
    • 6.4.2 Funding Support for Community Hospital Activity
  • 6.5 Infrastructure and Formal Requirements
    • 6.5.1 Specialized Childhood Cancer Program Partners’ Role in the POGO Satellite Program
    • 6.5.2 POGO Satellite Clinic Partners’ Role in the POGO Satellite Program
  • 7.1 Preamble
  • 7.2 Investigator Responsibilities
  • 7.3 Training Requirements
    • 7.3.1 General Training for Conduct of Research
    • 7.3.2 Protocol-Specific Training
  • 7.4 Research Activities That May Be Completed in POGO Satellite Clinics Under Supervision of DSI
  • 7.5 Research Activities to be Completed in Specialized Childhood Cancer Programs Only
  • 7.6 Recognition and Reporting of Adverse Events (AEs)
  • 7.7 Data Transfer
  • 7.8 Pharmacy Drug Accountability
  • 7.9 Site Inspections and Quality Assurance
  • 8.1 Pediatric Oncology Shared Care Initial Data Transfer Sheet
  • 9.1 POGO Satellite Clinic Preparedness Checklist
  • 9.2 POGO Satellite Clinic Quality Assurance Checklist
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