Hello again, it's getting cold outside

That's us in Bozburun-Turkey 4 years ago...

It was a crazy week. Kaan got here for our 4th anniversary. I prepared a lovely surprise dinner for us to eat at 12 am in the garden with many candles near the tiny teeny pond. It was so relaxing, nice...

Everything was last minute. We decided for him to come at 2 pm and he was here around 11 pm. Then surprise surprise he got us tickets to Turkey for our dear friend's wedding.

I am so glad we managed to go. Thanks a million buddy. It was the best wedding I have ever attended and it seems like it will remain so. We did not tell anyone that we were coming and rang the door bell just like that and it was so exciting for us and for friends. I just want to remember every detail forever!

The official part was a cocktail in a Tennis Club and then they took us to one of the best beaches in Turkey, to Cesme Kum Beach. How fun was that, how amazing. There were beer and tea service until 6 a.m. without even us asking while we were relaxing in the hot tub/ pool and watching the sun rise. It was a-ma-zing. Thank you Zeynep and the family. I mean: Wow!

I have been back for 3 days. Studying like a maniac. My allergies got the control. My brain is leaking through my nose. I feel horrible but I gotta do so many stuff. A friend of mine suggested that I should give birth and all my allergies will be gone. Haha! No harm comes from trying right? :)

Oh and my sister's weird and horrible rash caused by the drug the doctor prescribed and she had to take corticosteroids to suppress that. How crazy is that. The full story is in her funny and very useful blog here: Dear Lupus

Knitting and Lupus

My socks' project

My lovely flat mate got this yarn for me and left it as a present on the kitchen table. She has this amazing socks that she knitted herself and when she told me about this smart yarn that makes its own pattern I was so amazed I kept looking for it but could not find one. I was so happy to get this today! Oh how I needed such a thing. 

My sister's rash did not go away; in fact it is worse. Doctors do not know why. I know Lupus is not the worst disease but I think it's one of the hardest to deal with. She saw two doctors specialized on Lupus and they both are like, yeah get your medicine, deal with the side effects and change your life. I do not know why doctors have to be like that. You know your knowledge does not make you any superior than any human being. I am sorry if you are a doctor and reading this, I know some of you are really nice, the family friend of ours is also great and helping us so much. But -the bad ones I am asking- do you have to be in this mechanistic, non personal, and I cannot deal with you more than five seconds mood all the time. You are not gods, you only studied so many mechanistic procedures and learned to generalize human beings you cannot see the person in front of you. Oh I am so fuuuuuurious. When my sister asked the doctor whether she can only try diet, herbs and yoga he said "no way!". Well before she used the medication she was much better Mr., how about that. I can go on and on about this. I am so mad.  Well I only had one good experience when I was treated in the hospital in recent days. One of the young doctors came in the room, shook my hand, introduced himself, explained my situation and asked me if I had any more question. My mouth dropped open, I was speechless to his kindness and him seeing me as a person. 

You know even in a case such as Lupus where they have no clue, they can behave like oh so mighty we know all about it and we do not care what you think. I am sorry I do not trust this kind of medicine. Especially after studying EBM and learning about frauds of pharmaceuticals. I am not saying we should totally abandon it. No. But there are some cases you can treat with modern medicine and there are some cases you can treat with alternatives. And before modern medicine starts seeing patients as individual human beings I continue not to trust it. Sorry guys, you lost one point today..

  

LUPUS (SLE) or in other words my sister's illness

When my sister was diagnosed with Lupus, none of us heard of this disease before and she had been going to the doctors for more than 8 months. Lupus is not known much and awareness is close to nothing in Turkey, which makes self diagnosis rare. There are no support foundations or groups known to me apart from some online communities. It is a weird disease, your immune system cannot tell the difference betweeen antibodies and invaders and attacks its own healty tissues. Ezgi had been to the Romatologs with full symptoms and they have failed to diagnose it. Unbelievable.

The causes are not known to science. They guess it could be genetic, mixed with environmental effects and hormones. How not to activate it? Don't get stressed! Piece of cake..

If you like to have more information, here are some links for you:

What is it and what are the causes: Lupus Foundation of America
Turkish blog: Lupus Hastalari Paylasim Alani
Facebook groups you can support: Lupus Support