Monroe, WA, Round 3

March, 31st to April, 21st 2024

Why Monroe, WA?

Not only is the team at Thunderbird Thousand Trails awesome but it is close proximity to both Richard’s team at Seattle Children’s and area Therapy providers which gives us a much needed change for face to face team time then about anywhere else. We cannot shout how much we love his team and how supportive they are. Being able to see the team face to face a couple times a year is invaluable.

Richard’s Team

Seattle Team

Primary Team
- Dr. Adam Golden, MD, MD – General Surgery & Lead Surgeon
- Dr. Marina Panopoulos, MD – G.I. (and who we interact with the most)
- Dr. Sarah Christine Hofman DeYoung, MD – Pulmonary
- Jennifer Lee Patano, ARNP, MSN – Sleep Medicine
Providers we love and interact with on a regular basis
- Dr. Kimberly Riehle, MD – General Surgery
- Dr. Matt Dellinger, MD – General Surgery
- Michael Keith Pickens, DO – G.I.
- Matthew Farris Abts, MD – Pulmonary
- Nicole Sawangpont Pattamanuch, MD – G.I.
- Sanjay R Parikh, MD – Sleep Medicine
- John Patrick Dahl, Otolaryngology
- Carrie L Foster, ARNP – General Surgery (& best advocate for Richard.. IF we need something fast or to cut red tape we turn to Carrie)

Boston Team

Dr. Peter Ngo, MD – GI
Dr. Benjamin Zendejas-Mummert, MD, MSc – Lead Surgeon
Dori Gallagher, BSN, RN, MHM – Program Director (& red tape cutter)
Dr. Somala Mohammed, MD – Surgeon
Lauren Cardoni, FNP-C – Pulmonary
Olivia Pugliese, MSW – Clinical Social Worker

Esophageal & TEF Program @ Seattle Children’s Hospital

Seattle was one of the few ‘centers’ that is able to repair Esophageal Atresia back in 2019 and last year they lunched a specialized program to help manage ongoing outpatient needs. Richard was actually was one of the first patients to go through the clinic. It is very nice to see all his team at the same time. It is also nice, that his primary GI and Pulmonary doctors are also on this team. Richard had his 6 month follow-up appointment with the team. We mostly talked about Sleep Apnea and his feeding plan.

Click Here for information on the Airway & Esophageal Center at Seattle Children’s

Children’s Therapy of Woodinville

We started doing Feeding and Occupational Therapy at Children’s when we were at Tall Chief Campground in Fall City, WA. What made things interesting is both his therapists were named Katie….

Richard really enjoyed his Occupational Therapy and mostly worked on his motor skills and his internal ‘gyroscope’ awareness. He spent some time playing games while he was on a swing, doing crafts and playing in the ball pit.

One of the things that I wish someone had told us the first time we were discharged from Seattle Children’s was that there is different types of Feeding Therapists. There are the Speech and Language Pathologists (SLP) that deal with the motor skills required for feeding but there are also Occupational and Physical Therapist that have specialized training to help kids with different types of feeding challenges. As a matter fact, one of Richard’s and papa’s favorite providers in this area was Tawnie at Mason Physical Therapy.

Now that I am a little side tracked, I should get back to Woodinville and Katie (the Feeding Therapist). Mama got a chance to join us for one of the appointments and the two Katies hit it off! Richard also enjoyed his time with her. We are trying to go virtual when we return to Washington.

Field Trip Money Creek and Big Eddy Public Water Access

We did a day trip up Highway 2 and visited Money Creek Campground. The campground was closed but it was a great drive. On the way home we stopped by Big Eddy Public Water Access. It was set between two bridges over the Skykomish River. We took turns walking around and taking pictures.