The thing about the perfect best friend is that you want everyone you know to meet her.

Forget that she loves you even when you’re a bitch. Forget that on a visit to your family’s she walked your infant nephew all night long–while sick as a dog–so that you could get some sleep.

Don’t even consider that she knows all the words to every 80’s song and will sing them with very little prodding or alcohol when you can’t remember the words. And don’t even take into account her phenomenal dancing skills that would have secured her a job as the spotlight dancer on Solid Gold (that again will be performed with no prodding or alcohol).

Those aren’t the reasons you wished she lived next door.

It’s her heart and her smile and her laughter and her kindness that make her your number one gal.

AND SHE IS WHY THE NEW USPSTF MAMMOGRAPHY GUIDELINES MAKE ME WANT TO SCREAM!

My best friend was diagnosed with breast cancer this year at the age of the 37.

You know why?

Because she had a mammography at the urging of her new physician just to establish a baseline.

A baseline!

The growth was the size of a grain of rice. One, tiny, little growth that led to a bilateral mastectomy, drains, chemotherapy, hair loss and the inability to lift her three small children (all 5 and under) for extended periods of time this year.

That baseline mammogram at 37 is what allowed doctors to catch her aggressive form of cancer before she even felt a lump–before it spread to other places in her body.

And now the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has issued a statement indicating that women don’t need to consider regular mammograms until age 50?!

There are no words to convey the rage I feel about this–so I direct you to my friend’s feelings on the issue.

The American Cancer Society IS NOT changing their recommendation that women begin regular screening at the age of 40. (I couldn’t be more proud to be part of their blogger’s council.)

I am so afraid that women will believe this government entity–that insurance companies will believe them too.

The thing about my perfect best friend is that she is with me today–and will be for a long time thanks to an early mammogram.

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