Blades of Gory - Severed Femoral Artery

The saying goes “If you fall down, you get back up” but sometimes you have no choice but to lay there bleeding to death on the ice wondering if you just killed yourself with your figure skate. Life sometimes prohibits you from being a catchy motivational phrase and slices your femoral artery in half, at least that’s what happened to me 10 years ago.

At 13 years old I loved soccer, figure skating, painting my nails and catching up on the latest episode of “The Hills”. That routine was shattered when I not only cut the darn artery, I totally fucking sliced it in two. While practicing a dance routine my skate cut deep into my inner thigh leaving me laying on the white ice bleeding out as fast as my heart would beat.

Fast forward to five months post-surgery, I was back on my feet and hitting the ice. I struggled at first getting comfortable being on the same rink that I nearly died on. Besides the numerous doctor’s appointments I eventually fell back into my normal routine. We knew that what the surgeons were able to accomplish was working and we would be able to monitor the artery.

What we couldn’t predict were the challenges I would be facing in following years..

-Melissa Julian