Last night was the season premiere of a TLC program about a family in Oregon that deals with the challenges of being little in a world of average size people. In case you aren’t familiar with Little People, BIG WORLD, it’s an interesting and entertaining documentation of the daily comings and goings of dwarfs Matt and Amy Roloff, and their son Zach, who, along with three other average height family members, live on a farm near Portland, Oregon.

Now, I’m not a big TV watcher, but I find this program to be very worthwhile because it has made it possible for people of average height to gain a more accurate perspective on the world of people who struggle with obvious disabilities. And it has done it without the ruthless, tear-jerking exploitation of personal tragedy that makes so much of the media downright contemptible.

As the program airs, the overdubbed voices of Matt & Amy can be heard giving viewers a synopsis of their situation. While sitting in front of my in-laws’ television last night, it occurred to me that a lot of their introductory remarks could very well pertain to practically any family of an insulin dependent diabetic. Let’s look at it.

Here’s a transcript of the dialogue between Matt and Amy at the start of each episode of the program. I’ve put some of their words into parentheses, and then used brackets to insert what it might sound like if the issues surrounding dwarfism were replaced by insulin dependent diabetes.

Matt Roloff: “My name is (Matt Roloff) {your name,} and this is my wife, (Amy) {your spouse’s name.}"

Amy Roloff: “We’re (little people) {insulin dependent diabetics.}"

Matt: “When you’re (only four foot tall) {without insulin,} you’re feeling like you’re living in a world that wasn’t made for you.”

Amy: “We have to face obstacles and challenges just to live an ordinary life.”

Matt: “So we’re making our own life (on our 34 acre farm here in Oregon) {in a third floor tenement here in East Undershirt.} As a child, I spent literally years in a hospital bed dreaming about having an ultimate childhood. Now, I get to make those dreams come true for my kids.”

Amy: “Three of our kids (are average height) {make their own insulin,} and only one is (little) {diabetic.} We have twins, but some people don’t believe us, because (Zach) {your diabetic child} is (little) {insulin dependent} like us, and (Jeremy) {your healthy kid} isn’t.”

Matt: “My parents live right down the road. You might be surprised to learn that they’re (average height) {not diabetic.} In fact, Amy’s parents are (average height) {not diabetic,} too. One thing I wish people would understand about (little people) {diabetics} is . . .”

Amy: “. . . we can pretty much do what everyone else does, but just in a different way.”

Matt: “And this is our story.”

There’s no show for people with less obvious disabilities, and there probably never will be. As insulin users, most of us don’t have to worry about standing precariously on a stool to take a boiling pot off the stove, or depending on others to put our carry-on luggage into an overhead compartment, but we still live in a world that was made for “average pancreas” people, and we face special challenges every day that average pancreas people don’t.

How many times in the last 24 hours have you had to face the short term challenges presented by fluctuating blood sugars before getting behind the wheel of your car? Before eating breakfast, lunch, or dinner? Before making an important phone call? Before running into the grocery store to get just a few things on the way home?

How many times in the last week have you thought about exercising more frequently because it’s a virtual prerequisite for people with diabetes? How many times in the last month have you considered the long term effects of an A1c that just won’t drop below 7%?

Pretty much all the time, we are thinking either short term, medium term, or long term with regard to our sugars, constantly trying to come up with effective ways to, as Amy Roloff says, “pretty much do what everyone else does, but just in a different way.”

So until that time when greater numbers of average pancreas people are able to get more than just a few short, inaccurate, news-bite glimpses into “little pancreas, BIG WORLD,” we’ll probably continue (as many of you fellow D-bloggers have written recently) hearing people say things like “I could never give myself shots,” or “If you cut out the carbohydrates, you could stop taking insulin,” or “You're going to go easy on that dessert right?" or even, as in the case of Doug “Mr. Universe” Burns, “You have the right to remain silent.”