DR . WHO
My kiddos and our Bernedoodle Beasley
My husband Paul and me in Napa Valley
My family Napa valley has microscopes too !
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study bodily fluids or cellular aspirates on a cellular level , instead of a whole piece of tissue being intact on a slide . “ I was drawn to it because I wanted to be able to see patients still . I would see my own patients , do the biopsy myself , and then do what we call an immediate interpretation to tell whether or not we got the type of tissue we wanted ,” she said . “ You see what a solitary cell looks like , followed by looking at many cells on a whole tissue level : it ’ s its own art . It ’ s like a puzzle in a way .”
Now married to Dr . Paul McKee , she knew she wanted to move back to Louisville after her fellowship . She had rotated with Louisville Pathology Associates during her residency and stayed in touch during her fellowship , and happily , the group called her and let her know there was an open position . She jumped at the opportunity and joined Louisville Pathology Associates in July 2013 .
On any given day , her cases vary from small biopsies to larger sections of tumors . On rare occasions , she also performs autopsies from the hospital , which she says she loves to do , even if they ’ re time
consuming . She runs the clinical lab and is the Medical Director of the lab at Baptist Health LaGrange .
“ It keeps you on your toes . You might make the same diagnosis on a daily basis , but each patient is different . Every tumor grows differently . Each pathology report is tailored to exactly what happened in that patient ’ s body . It ’ s putting together a whole disease process for a patient .”
She loves working with her colleagues , which she credits as another helpful set of eyes on tricky cases , and surgeons , never knowing what biopsy will come through the doors next . “ I love being able to answer questions that another physician wasn ’ t able to answer . Probably my favorite part is the cytology of it ,” she said . “ We do noninvasive procedures to diagnose someone ’ s tumor and it ’ s based off extracting cells out of their body . I find it fascinating that we can look at a cluster of cells and just have our answer .”
While Dr . McKee said the perception of pathologists has come a long way , there are still misunderstandings about her specialty . “ There ’ s a misconception with pathologists that we just sit behind a microscope and can give an answer based off one thing . In fact ,
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