Ashley Williams moved to Louisville more than a year ago to participate in spinal cord injury research with the Kentucky Spinal Cord Injury Research Center. She now has hope for more independence. Ashley is a participant in our first randomized trial with epidural stimulation. The primary goal of that project is to look at the efficacy of epidural stimulation in regulation of blood pressure in individuals. “They can’t really give you any guarantee on what you get back,” Ashley says. “But a lot of people who get things back are the ones putting in the effort. And I’m definitely one of those people that’s putting in 110% every day I’m here.”
Williams is already seeing some improvement. She is still in the very early stages post-surgery and is currently working on tasks like trying to bring her knees up to her chest. “I want people to know that just because I’m not walking doesn’t mean I haven’t made recovery,” Ashley said. “When I first came home from the hospital, I couldn’t move my right arm at all. I could barely twitch my left arm. Now, I can move both my arms. I can do all kinds of things. You’re really having to focus on sending those signals because, like I said, I’ve been injured almost 12 years, so that’s 12 years I haven’t been able to use my legs.”