Bu ilaçtan sonra karnım şişti, bu yüzden doktoru aradım.

With sonra meaning after, Turkish normally uses the ablative case on the noun before it:

• ilaçtan sonra = after the medicine / after taking this medicine

So the structure is basically X-den/-dan sonra = after X.

The suffix is -tan here because ilaç ends in ç, a voiceless consonant. That makes the ablative suffix appear as -tan instead of -dan.

karın means belly / abdomen / stomach area.

The -ım ending means my, so:

• karın = belly
• karnım = my belly / my stomach

Turkish often uses possessed forms with body parts where English also uses my.

This is a very common pattern. Some Turkish nouns drop a vowel when a suffix is added. karın is one of them:

• karın
  • -ım → karnım

So the middle vowel disappears. This happens in several common body-part words, for example:

• burun → burnum
• ağız → ağzım
• karın → karnım

Not exactly in the anatomical sense. karın is more like belly / abdomen, while mide is the actual stomach organ.

But in everyday Turkish, karnım şişti is a very natural way to say that your stomach/belly became bloated. So even though the literal body part is closer to belly, the English translation my stomach got bloated is very normal.

Because the grammatical subject is karnım (my stomach), not I.

• karnım şişti = my stomach swelled / got bloated
• şiştim = I swelled / I got bloated

Turkish often makes the body part the subject in sentences like this. So the verb is in third person singular to match karnım.

It comes from the verb şişmek, which means to swell / become bloated.

Breakdown:

• şiş- = verb stem
• -ti = past tense

So:

• şişti = it swelled / it got bloated

The past tense appears as -ti rather than -di because the stem ends in ş, which is voiceless.

Bu yüzden means:

• for this reason
• because of this
• therefore
• so

It connects the first clause to the second one. In this sentence, it means that the second action happened as a result of the first situation.

It is a very common expression in Turkish.

The two bu words do different jobs:

• bu ilaç = this medicine
• bu yüzden = for this reason / therefore

So the second bu is not repeating the first one unnecessarily. It points back to the whole previous idea: the bloating after the medicine.

It can mean both, depending on context.

• birini aramak can mean to call someone
• bir şeyi / birini aramak can also mean to look for something / someone

Here, because the sentence is about a medical problem, doktoru aradım is naturally understood as I called the doctor.

If the context were different, it could mean I looked for the doctor, but that is not the most likely meaning here.

The -u is the accusative ending, used for a specific definite direct object.

So:

• doktoru aradım = I called the doctor / I called that specific doctor

The suffix is -u because of vowel harmony: the last vowel in doktor is o, so the accusative becomes -u.

This is one of the reasons the sentence sounds like I called the doctor, not just I called a doctor.

It comes from aramak.

Breakdown:

• ara- = verb stem
• -dı = past tense
• -m = I

So:

• aradım = I called / I looked for

Because the stem ends in a vowel, the past tense joins smoothly as -dı, and then -m marks first person singular.

That is the normal Turkish word order. Turkish is usually verb-final.

So in this sentence:

• karnım şişti
• doktoru aradım

Both clauses end with the verb, which is the most neutral and natural order in Turkish.

English speakers often notice this quickly because English usually puts the verb much earlier in the sentence.