Hells Bells, it's a blog about cells!

You know what is more intimidating than writing about all the ins and outs of cytology? 

Writing your first blog post….about yourself. 

But regardless of the intimidation and my inclination to perfectionism (i.e. my brain telling me “this is your first blog post! It has to be perfect!”), I’m beyond excited to be starting this adventure into the blogging sphere! But before I give you the low-down on the plans I have for us here (and man, do I have some exciting plans), I’ll take a quick minute to introduce myself to any of you who don’t know me well just yet. 

My name is Dr. Kate Baker, but you can call me Kate.

I’m a veterinary clinical pathologist, mom of 2, wife of 1, dog-lover, craft beer connoisseur, wood-worker, miniature doll food designer, and expert lawnmower. But we’ll get to all that later on...let’s start with a clin path...

If I take things wayyyy back, somewhere around 2001 when I was 16 years old, I started to take on a serious interest in both animals and disease. At the time, I knew I wanted to be a vet when I “grew up”, but I didn’t realize how my love for TV shows like “Mystery Diagnosis” and books like ”Pathologic Basis of Disease” would end up merging beautifully with my love of animals to result in a future career as a veterinary pathologist. Fast forward to 2016, when I completed my residency and officially became a board-certified veterinary clinical pathologist-- ahh, a dream come true, really.

Once I started my job as a diagnostic pathologist, I was happy. But, something felt like it was missing. Teaching. I really love what I do, but being able to share the amazing microscopic world through teaching was the missing piece. My husband Will (also a vet) can only feign so much excitement over cases that I drag him into my office to geek out over with me.

So, one day, I started a Facebook group: The Veterinary Cytology Coffeehouse.

It was completely on a whim, but the idea was to have a space to share cool cases and interact with the vet med community. I pressed “Create Group” and got super pumped as the first few hundred people joined. Then more people joined. Then….way more people joined…

I had *no idea* what would become of this group, but now only 2 short years later, we’re a virtual community of almost *50,000* members! That’s right, FIFTY THOUSAND. This huge but tight knit group truly is my favorite place on the internet, and has turned into a rich place for learning and sharing (i.e. nerding out) with colleagues from all over the world.

Since then, I’ve been able to connect with all of you not only through the Facebook group but also through Instagram and my online cytology/hematology CE courses. It’s such a blast for me to share all things cytology with you guys and watch you become more confident in this area of vet med that well, frankly, is under-taught in most vet med curriculums. 

So what are my plans for this blog?

I’m sure things will evolve with time, but I’m excited to share even more with you guys here, including case presentations, career guidance, cyto tidbits, equipment recommendations, fun facts, and the list goes on.

Basically anything I think would be interesting, practical, and helpful to you is what I plan to share-- but, I need your thoughts too! I want to know what you guys want to read about, so, do you have ideas on blog topics? Send me a message and let me know! I want to talk about what you guys want to read about, so don’t hesitate to hit me with any and all of your ideas.

Are you a vet professional and want to join us in the Cyto Coffeehouse Facebook group? CLICK HERE!