Yes I'm in the union and I know the shop won't sack me, it's just the way they treat the workers at times by trying to make them feel guilty.
As it. happens I went to the docs and was told carry on working as I do. He also told me that riding my bike to work and back would be beneficial to helping calf to heal. Looking at the video on the small ball massaging looks interesting and I'm planning on giving it a go. I also mentioned I knew someone that was qualified in sport massage, he charges £25; I'm thinking on this too when I can afford it
I would contact your union tell them you got a warning for being sick and see what they can do. Maybe they can help you by arranging an occupational health assessment? If it were me I would be appealing any disciplinary action if I was off work because I was genuinely ill and couldn't work. I am sure they could put you on lighter duties for a short time until such time as you have made a recovery to return to your previous duties. I think any employer who cares about their staff welfare would not have a problem with this and genuinely want to help. Have you contacted HR which may mean you get much better treatment by management once you have? You might even find your employer has signed up to a basic BUPA package for established qualifying members of staff so might get treatment this way. As good as the NHS is, with sports injuries IME they are pretty hopeless.
As I said GPs are generally not up to the task of treating sports injuries which yours is. Sorry but being told to just carry on is not correct advice. I was told this on several occasions. Poor. You need to make allowances for your injury for it to heal properly and avoid heavy lifting, pushing or pulling your calf excessively which will cause excessive strain to the muscles which they cannot handle at present as your tear has not healed properly. It will only tear again. After about 4-6 weeks of taking it easy the fibres will have healed enough so you can begin cross friction massage with the ball as in Jon Blackburn's YT vid. But go easy at first very easy. In fact start with more gentle rolling using a roller which you could start with earlier as it doesn't get into muscle fibres so deeply and is not so aggressive. You want to be gentle with the affected injured muscle not go mad and undo what healing has already taken place. You want to try to gently break up scar tissue and encourage new blood to flow in and the muscle fibres to reform. Scar tissue will be weak and will never be as strong as before and prone to further injury. You need a Lacroix ball, something about the size of a tennis ball but hard. You could even use a tennis ball, or cricket ball, hockey ball. The smaller the diameter the more it gets into the fibres, but closer to the chair/ground your calf will be. I use a hard wooden seated chair. The massage is heaven. Far better than any sports/physio massage I have ever had and no cost except for the ball.
Strangely when I injured my calfs cycling wasn't really affected as not too much tension goes through the calf muscles as cycling is low impact. I cycle at a higher cadence anyway so don't push and pull heavy gears which can ruin your knees and Achilles tendons.
HTH.
