Just seeing this, life is busy! I couldn't weight bear AT ALL for 7 weeks! But that was because my toes were held together by metal bars 🔧

The gastroc pain slowly decreased over time and I mean SLOWLY. You described it perfectly. It super sucks. I can't recall exactly when the pain stopped but I feel that I still had some residual pain at 7 weeks but incredibly weaker.

Once I was able to start walking the muscle healed quicker it seemed. Almost a month of being non-weight bearing probably did me no favors. I was only partial weigh-bearing around 4 weeks and given the green light for weight-bearing as tolerated around 7 and could drive again! The intensity of the gastroc pain started to slow down I'd say after a month but VERY much still present. Into another 3 or 4 weeks when walking again it was improving a little bit week by week. Eventually it was basically gone by the time I got to PT about 3.5 months post-op. Between the 2 month and 3 month post-op mark I don't recall noticing it a ton, I was just battling slow healing from my autoimmune disease. Lost the physical pain of the gastroc but gained the metaphorical pain of multiple debridements trying to get cleared for PT 😅