August 15, 2017: A perfectly normal day during my summer holidays. Today is the last hard training session before the Boulder World Cup in Munich. Yoga and mobility work feel great, so let's get to the wall! A few easy boulders to warm up, followed by some harder climbs to really get my blood flowing, so I don't end up injuring myself later... After the first moderately difficult boulder and a hard climb, my left shoulder makes a "crack". As athletes tend to do, I thought, oh come on, that's nothing, don't be such a baby, and it didn't even hurt. So I carried on, the competition simulation started, and I tried my best, but then I had to stop after the second boulder because it already felt "kind of weird".
Only 3 days until the World Cup. Over the next few days, my shoulder never really hurt again, and from the start I was certain: I definitely want to compete! On competition day, my shoulder was covered in kinesiology tape, and I tried to ignore any doubts about whether something might be wrong, especially with the Youth World Championships just two weeks away.
Despite everything, the weeks between the World Cup and the Youth World Championships were filled with hard training and very little rest, especially since my shoulder itself almost never hurt. During the Youth World Championships, I unfortunately realised that something couldn't be right, so I had an MRI appointment in early September. The images couldn't confirm with certainty whether it really was a labral tear or not, so I was told to climb lightly for four weeks and see if it went away on its own. Nothing changed during that time; the pain and frustration only increased, and eventually I finally knew for sure that I needed surgery.
Looking back, it was a good decision because from that point on I knew things could only get better, and that I would feel better afterwards. A week later, on October 23, I took the train to Bamberg, and two days later I returned home with a fixed labrum, a shoulder sling, and a lot of time without climbing.
The first four weeks were the most boring and toughest, as I wasn't allowed to move my arm at all—it was quite a test of patience at times! But the time of passive physiotherapy and "one-armedness" has also passed, and week by week I've been able to move my shoulder a little more.
Then came the first milestone in week 7: the start of my rehab at the Schönklinik in Munich! Three to four times a week for five hours, packed with strength training, physiotherapy, Thera-Band exercises, flossing, and mobility training. This meant I was finally busy again, and I could feel myself improving every day and very, very slowly returning to normal.
Ten weeks after my surgery, I managed my first pull-up (with assistance), and before I knew it, I was back on the wall for my first climbs. Finally: 12 weeks, or 89 days after my surgery, I was back at the climbing wall!!! Very lightly and very carefully, and not really doing much, but now, in week 14, I'm already climbing three times a week and going to rehab twice a week. A lot more Thera-Band exercises than before and some shoulder-specific exercises are now a regular part of my training.
It will still take a few months before I reach my goal of being stronger than I was before my injury, but I'm already really happy with the progress I've made, and with the motivation I've built up over the last few months, I'm going to be hard to stop. :P
I was incredibly lucky to have our team doctor, Dr. Volker Schöffl, who patched me up and made me feel like new again, the rehab team at the Schönklinik, who supported, motivated, and challenged me throughout, and my coaches, who stood fully behind me and believed in me despite my injury. And, of course, my parents and my brother, without whom I probably wouldn't have survived the first few weeks after surgery (thanks for cooking, massaging, dressing me, ...). :D A huge thank you to everyone!
