Iron will, steel resolve
Disability drew doubters, but perseverance won; sonographer is now an achiever …
and a survivor
by Julie Thompson

Jackie Birr has struggled to be heard her entire life. Yet she is the one with severe hearing loss.

It’s a silent war she has fought since she was diagnosed in Mrs. Brown’s third-grade class. Since then, the 48-year-old has weathered cruelty from others and inwardly shouldered the self-doubt that comes from it.

Still, Jackie said, each battle has made her stronger and more resilient. Each victory has left her with the courage to face the next challenge.

Those who have been blessed to encounter Jackie don’t forget her. It’s not because of her disability, but because of the type of woman she has become in spite of it. A handful of professors at Kettering College can attest to it.

In 2002, when Jackie first stepped foot onto KCMA’s campus, it had been years since she had left the work force to raise her three children. She was looking for a challenging career.

Jackie’s career choice took many Kettering College professors by surprise. After all, a big part of a sonographer’s job depends on picking up different sounds such as blood flow. Jackie was determined to prove she could do the job.

Her determination changed the way some KCMA professors looked at students forever. And, paving a fairly new path in the medical field would prepare her for what was to become her hardest battle yet: cancer.

Stepping Out of Silence
Jackie’s journey to Kettering College started with an ad in the newspaper. She wanted to see what jobs were hot, and she learned that health care was the place to be. She saw an ad for a sonographer, and she decided to start at KCMA.

	Jackie Birr's family (left to right): son J.C., Jackie, daughter Niki, husband Gary, and son Ryan.

The prospect of starting over in school was frightening, Jackie said. Since she was a little girl, the classroom was where her disability was exposed and magnified. In grade school, her inability to hear a teacher say there was to be no talking led to a punishment of soap in her mouth. And she’ll never forget the stares as she was pulled out of class for special education classes or therapy.

Perhaps that’s why she was relieved when a friend who also was pursuing a new degree offered to take her to Kettering to sign up.

“I didn’t have the confidence to do it by myself,” Jackie said. “I not only had my hearing against me, but I had been out of school for 20 years.”

She was soon accepted and decided to start out slowly. Jackie’s hearing impairment – which was caused by nerve damage that left her 70 percent deaf in one ear and 30 percent in the other – makes it difficult for her to hear people who speak in a certain range or when background noises like rustling paper compete with voices. She frequently has to rely on her eyes, reading lips to pick up what her ears don’t hear.

Jackie receiving her diploma from Dr. Scriven in 2006

She began by taking one class the first summer as she learned how to study again. Once she mastered one class, she would move on to the next. Her goal was to do the best she could, which meant sitting in the front row to hear better and doing more work than was required.

Her work ethic and desire to succeed quickly gained the respect of her professors.

“I learned a lot by having her in my class,” said Dan Schoun, an algebra professor who taught Jackie’s first class. “Jackie is a very, very determined student.”

No one knows that better than Dan, who not only was Jackie’s first professor, but also her adviser. He was one of the first to learn of Jackie’s desire to be a sonographer and talked with her about the challenges that might lie ahead. Dan was honest with Jackie and told her he didn’t know if her hearing impairment would allow her to do the work she wanted to do.

“One thing that made me so proud of her was that if she heard that something was unknown, she didn’t take that as a no, but rather, ‘Ok, then I want to try to do it,’” Dan said.

Dan’s response only prepared Jackie for others’ concerns in the field. Joyce Grube, associate professor and chair of the medical sonography department, said she tried to discourage Jackie from considering the program. Jackie was the first student Joyce encountered in her field who didn’t just have a hearing deficiency, but a hearing impairment.

Jackie (left) with Joyce Grube, chair of the medical sonography department at Kettering College

“Part of being a sonography professional is not only seeing a Doppler signal, but hearing it,” Joyce said. “We had our reservations, but that was absolutely what she wanted to do. It wasn’t something that we could hold her back from.” Jackie soon found her acceptance into the sonography program would be twofold. First, she would have to get the tools in place to make her hearing the best it could be for the job; second, she would have to continue to study to make sure the grades got her in.

Her efforts paid off. She was selected for the competitive program, which often accepts only half of those who apply. She saw an audiologist, who fitted her with new hearing aids, which make a significant difference in some of her hearing. She also purchased special instruments to allow her to work better.

She moved through the program with one goal: “Watch me,” Jackie recalled saying to herself. “I’m going to try hard, and I’m going to pass.”

And that’s just what she did. In 2006, Jackie graduated from the sonography program with honors.

“I walked down that aisle and onto that stage with cords around my neck,” she said.

It was a proud moment – one that would mark the beginning of a new test of perseverance.

The Fight For Life
About a year after graduating and entering the sonography field, Jackie was diagnosed with stage-one breast cancer.

	Jackie (left) completed her final chemotheraphy treatment in Sept. of 2007
	When Jackie (right) finished her chemotherapy treatments, the nurses gave her a "purple heart award" and celebrated by blowing bubbles and horns

The reality of the disease left her shocked and her family devastated. She and her husband drove home from the doctor’s visit without saying a word, and for one of the few times in her life, she was thankful for the silence.

After spending the first few hours alone to contemplate what she faced, she sat her kids down and said what she had heard herself say so many times in life: “I’m going to fight this.”

She determined she would deal with the fear, but not allow it to overcome her as she walked through her biopsy and then chemotherapy.

“I was scared to death,” Jackie said. “I would cry and then go in and work on a patient, and then go out and cry some more.”

She possessed an incredible will to defeat cancer. By the time she went through her fourth chemotherapy treatment, she had significantly shortened the amount of time she was sick from four days to a matter of hours.

“I learned how to control it,” she says. “I learned how to beat it.”

The stares she got after losing her hair weren’t anything new. In fact, the looks she had gotten over her hearing impairment had toughened her and prepared her for it.

The biopsy and diagnosis. The chemo. The radiation. The surgery to remove her uterus and ovaries to prevent further risk. It was a long road that often felt much like a roller coaster, but she now celebrates that her blood counts are all fine and that there have been no recurrent lumps.

It helps, too, she said, that she has a job she enjoys.

Jackie (left) with her classmate and friend Michelle Walker, who is one of Jackie's closest friends from Kettering College

“I love it,” she said. “I love knowing that I am helping people.”

One of the favorite parts of her job is when students come through. It’s her opportunity to instill confidence in others so that they, too, can get out there in the real world.

Jackie has left an impression in the classrooms at Kettering College.

“What she has battled through with breast cancer since graduation shows even more what a remarkable person she is,” Joyce said. “I am proud to say she is a graduate of my program.”