Need help please......

Hi,
Yesterday I had way too much food to eat. At the end of the day I was feeling somewhat ill with a tummy ache. I threw up some of the food. This morning I had diarhea (diarrhea), the stools were a light brown. I had nothing to eat at all except something small today. The this evening I had another stool again. This time it was kind of a darker brown. No blood or anything. Could me not eating for so long have caused the change in color? Also what do they mean by a black and tarry stool? Thanks Tiffany

[Wilson]

Stool color can be affected by alot of different factors, including transit time (the time it takes for something you've eaten to move through your system). Darker color usually results from longer transit times.
"Black and tarry" stools are just that - black like the color of tar, not just a dark brown. Such stools usually contain dried blood, most often caused by bleeding somewhere higher up in the digestive tract like the stomach. There is also sometimes a hint of iron in the smell of stools that contain fresh or dried blood. Black stools can also result from taking Pepto Bismol or eating licorice.
In your case it sounds like your system just got knocked out of whack and you shouldn't have too much to worry about, unless your stools are in fact persistently black. You'll probably return to normal in the next day or so, if you haven't already.

[Christine56]

Hi:

Can anyone help me with a problem I'm having?  I'm going to be really graphic so the faint hearted should sign out now.  

My stools are usually quite light coloured but sometimes have dark, tarry peices to them.  also when I eat something like tomatoes, carrots, seeds, etc. it shows up in my stook about 2 - 4 hours later.

Yesterday and today I had the weirdest thing happen.  Part of my stool was like a string.  Literally.  I hung outside of me and I had to pull at it both times to get it to let go.  Grouse, or what?

Can anyone tell me what is going on with my BM's???

[Tiffanyfl]

I did take some pepro bismol. How long does the dark stool last?

[Wilson]

If your stools are still black in a week then it's not the Pepto Bismol.

[Wilson]

Certain things like seeds and fiber from certain vegetables don't ever get digested. They pass through pretty much unchanged and it's not a problem. In fact that's sort of why fiber is such a good thing - it helps push everything through and keep your intestines cleaned out.
As far as your other issues, you may have IBS which is just a matter of some inconsistent bowel activity. If your stools were stringlike all the time you might have an obstruction of some sort, but otherwise they were probably just restricted by some other stool on their way out which caused them to be thin.

If your stools continue to ALWAYS be strange to you, or you have any other symptoms such as pain or weight loss you should definitely get checked out by a GI doc. Otherwise you might actually try eating a little MORE fiber and see if that regulates things for you.