Recently, for my 18th birthday I (18F) ordered a chocolate cake covered with a lot of black fondant (like the whole cake and icing is black). My mom had like 3 slices yesterday night while i only had 1 with way less fondant and more of the middle part.
Today morning i woke up to the news that my moms poop had been pitch black. She was worried but me and others told her its probably because of the cake which she agreed . Fast forward to tonight, my mom pooped again and asked me to look at her poop because it looked black or green and she had googled it and said it can be because of internal bleeding, she has no other symptoms and feels fine btw.
She has always been paranoid about her health, takes me with her to doctor appointments and has even told me she has a fear she’s going to get cancer(idk why she doesnt drink or smoke). I told her no, its probably just the cake and if shes worried she should go to a doctor in the morning, he lives like 5 minutes from us and is walk in. I wont look at her poop but now shes upset at me and left the room saying "this is how you treat me when i am older".
I think she is calling her sister rn to ask about the poop .I think i might have messed up but she is just a serious overthinker in regards to her health so idk. so reddit aita??
Nta, it’s weird to ask someone to look at your poop and be upset when they say no lol. And also … for Halloween I made cupcakes with black frosting and my entire family pooped green/black for a few days. Totally normal 😂. It’s definitely the dye in the icing lol.
NTA. We all had blue fondant cake for my wedding, following day hilarious blue poop messages. No one looked at each other’s poop to know it was the fondant, nor would we want to!
That’s gross. Tell her to take a picture and send it to a doctor (but warn him first).
I had a friend who had medical anxiety, sounded just like your mother. Definitely nta for not looking at her poop, you are her daughter not her care provider. Unfortunately if she does have hypochondria, which is a real disorder, it can only be improved by therapy. They are so certain that the anxiety is a real sign of something being wrong that they don’t listen to reason at all.
You’re not a dr. what good would you looking at it do? nta
I agree completely. You looking at your mom’s poop will solve nothing. Are you able to tell her that in a way she can understand? Plus, I am afraid if you do she will ask you to start looking at her poop regularly.
Right?! If she thinks there’s something wrong then she needs to take a sample (or at least a photo) to her doctor.
But I guarantee the only thing her doctor’s going to say, is that she recently ate a large amount of black food colouring!
For the record, I swear a doctor told me once that green stool just means it’s passing through you too quickly?
It’s weird that she’s asking you to do that, but I can see why she is concerned. Like, what value can you add to it? You aren’t a nurse or a doctor.
Certain food dyes can also color your stool. Black dye tends to do this.
NTA. I would have let her know that since I am not a doctor or a nurse, I know nothing about poop, other than how to wipe my butt and flush the toilet. She can do those two things on her own.
Exactly. I’m a nurse and it’s still not the kind of thing I consider it appropriate to just “assume” someone will just casually do whenever.
I’m not at work, you’re not my patient, and you don’t want me assessing your stool anyways because years of untreated ulcerative colitis has me under the impression that basically any amount of bright red blood is totally normal and nothing to be concerned about. (I get a coworker if it’s more than like two drops of blood from someone with known hemorrhoids.)
NTA
NTA you aren’t a health professional; you’re under no obligation to look at anyone’s poop. 🤦🏻♀️ What does she think you can tell her that’s useful? “Yup, that’s black/green poop?”
It takes a couple of days for the body to flush out that much black food coloring, I’m quite sure that’s all that’s going on, but if she’s still worried, she should call her health provider or take a poop sample to a lab, not nag her 18 year old about it. Good grief!
This reminded me of Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory & his poop journal.