Ronney & Angela Fowler need our help: Angela’s health crisis

Meet Angela and Ronney Fowler both 43 years old. Both were born and raised in Nokesville. And they both swear they were destined to be together. They have been married for 6 years but have held each other’s hearts since first grade when they meant in elementary school. I have been friends with them for more than thirty years and as much as their love has gotten them thru this time they are in need of some help. Any help is greatly appreciated and a true blessing.

Angela and Ronney both went separate ways going into adulthood, and had different lives. Ronney lived life and Angela started her dream of being a mom to three beautiful girls and one handsome boy. After many years and time apart there paths crossed again. Call it fate, call it destiny they were brought back together in 2017. Ronney had recently come back to the area they grew up in and Angela was going thru a divorce. They weren’t exactly those two 19 year olds standing on the sidewalk in middle of Nokesville on Nokesville Day in June of 2001, Angela introducing Ronney to her first born baby girl Nicole. The spitting image of her mom baby Nicole was nothing but smiles as she posed with Ronney so her mom could snap a picture. I imagine she didn’t have as many smiles as her mom and Ronney after running into each other after all those years but they were young and life was busy. With a quick hug and both promising to keep in touch they went separate ways until 2017, when there paths crossed again. A few afternoons and evenings together and like the song goes “they realized way deep down there feelings remained the same”. December 15, 2018 they got married and were all set to live happily ever after. With its ups and downs they were still on cloud nine and in the honeymoon phase, until July 28, 2021 when Ronney came home to find Angela “just not right”. Angela had lost her dad to cancer In February, her family went there seperate ways. Between suffering from depression, grief, emotional loss and the physical pain of a bad dental surgery that spring he would often find her upset and not herself. This time it was different this time she was was way off. He asked several times to take her to the hospital and she said no. He had worked late that night and they got showers and went to bed. She hadn’t been laying down five minutes when she asked him to take her to the Emergency Room, the pain was to much for her to handle. He immediately took her to the Er and within fifteen minutes she had been seen so they claim, diagnosed, scripts written and out the door. Before they reached his his truck she lost it and begged him to take her somewhere else. She kept telling him something was wrong, something wasn’t right. He knew something wasn’t right so he took her to what was Novant Haymarket Medical Center and she was diagnosed with a “stroke”. She was 39 years old being diagnosed with a stroke and this was far from your normal stroke, this was a rare condition called Cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) of the right transverse and sigmoid sinus and her right internal jugular vein was almost fully occluded. At the time they thought she had three blood clots but would need more extensive testing. She was transported back to the first discharging hospital where she stayed over a week. There 39th birthdays were in 14 and 24 days and they had a romantic trip planned, which they haven’t made up yet.

Long story short, what they thought had been three blood clots blocking major veins in her neck and brain was one very large one, which Angela now refers to as Fred. Doctor after doctor, specialist, anfter soecialist and testing galore but to this day they still don’t have the why, what caused Angela’s blood to clot like that? They did get many other unexpected diagnosis they are still searching for answers. Angela’s biggest and really only concern is the genetics of it and can she pass this to her kids? They have asked for several tests over the last few years and denied. The genetic test they have obtained themselves. Angela has would not rest until she had done genetic testing in an attempt to protect her kids from this happening to them as well. Ina edition to protecting her children she has volunteered for several research studies to help in the advancement of different diseases she has been diagnosed with, the list is extensive. The end result is Angela will never cure from this they tried to coagulate and were unsuccessful. Her right internal jugular vein actually has now become became fully occluded not only in the vein but also again in the jugular bulb. During a procedure her right radial artery was injured as well and the last time they tried anything on her right side the immediately had to stop and administer “tpa” as her Carotid artery occluded the second it was touched. She will remain on blood thinners for the rest of her life, which the doctors have very bluntly informed her won’t be the normal life span but a significantly shortened one. She has been diagnosed with multiple Rare Autoimmune related diseases, chronic kidney disease and has suffered both cognitive and developmental disabilities due to these conditions. Her new sentence Ronney hates, “when I had brain, when I was smart, before I got dumb”, she struggles with depression severely. Unfortunately, Angela has never gotten better and as hard as she tries she won’t. She has good days and bad days but over the last year and half it’s mostly all bad and sometimes a lot of the time it is just debilitating. She told me and I quote “I’d be lost without him but I feel so bad, what was supposed to be our happy ever after has been hell on earth, his hole life dedicated to caring for me. I hate being his burden”. There are days she can do something’s for herself and days she can’t even get out of bed on her own. Recently after several letters and lots of research Angela was accepted to the Cleveland Clinic they went to the one in Florida which seemed very promising. They had a follow up scheduled for May which they had planned to take Angela’s son to Universal Studios and other Florida attractions

while there. However like most things in there lives everything can and will change quickly.

Match 11, 2025 They went for a long awaited neuro-ophthalmologist appointment. They had waited over a year to get seen and it was found, and further testing has confirmed

Angela is in another medical emergency. This one quite serious with potential to leave her blind or to have a brain hemorrhage among other horrible things. She has increased intercranial hypertension causing flattening of orbits (disc inside the retina), as well as bone remodeling, optic nerve compression, empty sella and both ottorhea of the ears and nose. However that isn’t all this increased pressure could do. It has already caused leaks and could cause more else where. Currently the exact location of the leaks or exactly how many has not been found even with testing. The only thing they are sure of is it’s more than one leak and isn’t going to fix itself. Even with the leaks which should release the pressure, the pressure is tending to build more and more frequently. Also she was found to have an antibiotic resistant version of staph in her sinuses in February of 2024 and it has hospitalized her twice in Critical Care and still seems to linger about. Any infection puts her at a great risk of meningitis. They recently found a spot on her lower back that has been there but has changed and become very concerning and a spot they have been watching on her lower right lobe of her lung has changed shape and increased in size and both have become worrisome on there own. Add the CSF leaks and everything she is already diagnosed with the outlook isn’t good. After some research there are very few centers in the US who actually handle CSF leaks and not one in every state. A few calls and what seemed like years waiting and Angela was accepted to see a neurosurgeon as a urgent case in Westin, Florida specializing in CSF leak repair and Inter-cranial hypertension. As you can imagine this has brought quite the strain on them financially. Angela was found disabled in July of 2021 and hasn’t been able to work since and likely never will. Ronney works for himself, after being fired for taking “to much time off” taking Angela to the doctors appointments and necessary treatment. He is currently Angela’s sole caregiver and this can be very hard at times. Angela’s son is there to help on weekends and her youngest daughter lives there for about a year if anything it made Angela happy. They just took a trip to the Cleveland Clinic in Florida when Angela was diagnosed with Relapsing Polychondritis, they weren’t prepared to go back this soon. There lasttrip was supposed to be a few days and lasted two weeks. Needless to say they are still recovering from this financial strain. Angela’s need for treatment is rather emergent and they must leave this weekend to make it to the Cleveland Clinic hospital for her appointment with Neurosurgery on Wednesday. Angela can’t fly and due to the blood clots she can’t drive straight thru. They will have many travel expenses not to mention medical expenses that aren’t covered as Angela just paid for genetic testing to make sure she wasn’t passing anything along to her kids, her world. They need our help, they have managed the last four years with minimal help except close family and very little unless absolutely necessary. However this time I worry they won’t ask for help even if they need it. I know they need are help this time. So anything anyone can and is willing to do as no amount is to small and every little bit will help them. This isn’t the first trip and won’t be the last. That’s the only guarantee they have given Angela is that she will never be herself again. She hasn’t had much to say when I saw her. She was very sad and said she just wants to see her kids, hold her grandson, spend time with her mom who has stage IV cancer and go fishing with her husband and take there dream trip to Montana. It’s weird how the little things are actually the big things in the end.

Please consider donating to this page that has been setup to help them with travel expenses, such as hotels, food, gas, etc. anything left will be saved for medical bills and medical expenses. Angela is not able to work and Ronney works everyday he isn’t with Angela at the drs caring for her. This isn’t the fairytale they imagined but they both agree they wouldn’t want to do it with anyone else. It’s been a long four years on them let’s help them and take some of the stress off of them. Hopefully this will bring more answers and at least prolong the time they have together and that Angela can have with her kids and Grandson. She showed me pictures and the smile on her face was amazing, it’s like night and day, she’s in pain and agony and bring out pictures of her kids and grandson and her face lights up.

Also there will be a caring bridge website put together to tell there full story and keep up with how her health progresses. Anyone that is interested about her conditions or what has happened in her treatment can follow them and their story there. The website will monitor her progress and how they are doing and what’s next for them. Also please note this isn’t the only diagnosis’s Angela has received, she has been diagnosed with several very rare autoimmune conditions as well. It will also hold some very important links, informations and websites to visit should you ever find yourself in there position. Finding the proper websites, foundations and learning the medical processes can be very time consuming and difficult. There have been many different foundations and sites for different aspects of being chronically and/or terminally ill. Not only for research but overall learning and coping that have helped them throughout this journey. They will write what they have learned and now what they know you have to ask and who to talk to. Navigating the health care process for the Chronically/terminally ill diagnosis is the hardest thing to do, and they hope to give any information they might be able to that will help someone else. They hope to pass along information and save other families time researching when they should be spending that time together making memories cause in the end memories are all you are left with. They hope there help will make it a little easier process for anyone who faces what they have been threw the last four years on this medical journey. Something they would never wish upon anyone. Angela is especially passionate about women’s healthcare and medical gaslighting of woman.