When Zoe was born, the immediate assessment on her included a percentage called the "ejection fraction." I think of the ejection fraction like the quarterback rating - a weird algorithm that equals a number. And people end up using the number to compare to other numbers, and few really know how you come up with the number.
So next time you watch NFL, you'll hear an announcer say that the QB (sadly, not Favre, sniff) has a QB rating of 120. But if you stopped things and asked him how you come up with QB rating, he'd have no idea. He just knows 120 is pretty good, and say...80 is not so good.
A good ejection fraction is 60. If you are a newborn, and everything in you is healthy, your ejection fraction will be around 60.
Zoe's was 25 when she was born.
Today...it was 43. That's way way better, but still not great. Then again, as intimated today by the doctor, a baby with Tetralogy of Fallot isn't going to hit 60. So previous blog posts where I told you that doctors told me that they didn't think the heart problem was related to Zoe's condition, yeah...they're not sure anymore.
The new set of theories is that maybe it just took a bunch of time for Zoe to get it - get being in this world. That might also including breathing issues. The hope is that her ejection fraction will continue to rise and/or she'll continue to show stability. Right now, we're getting both. There's a chance we'll see her fraction rise less now and her stability continue.
It sounds now like she's in NICU for at least another week. Pray...we all just want her home.
Breathing tube out, Jen and I were allowed to hold Zoe today. First time. That's a little tiny little peanut.
I think Zoe's lack of dealing with this world is clearly because of the snowstorm. Zoe was told there was going to be some kind of global warming, but was deeply saddened to see all this snow.
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