C4-C7 | 1 YEAR POST OP

from a C4-C7 ACDF and wanted to see if anyone else has experienced this.

For context, I was actually doing pretty well before this recent flare-up. I had gotten back into walking a lot, stairmaster, PT exercises, and working regularly. I’ve probably been overdoing it a bit lately along with poor sleep and a lot of posture correction/scapular work in PT.

A couple days ago I woke up with pretty intense pain/tightness at the base of my neck/upper trap area (kind of where the neck meets the shoulder blade). At first I could barely turn my head to the right. The stiffness has improved some, but now I’m getting a lot of irritation around the upper trap/rhomboid/scapular area with popping/cracking when adjusting my shoulder blade.

The pain seems muscular/mechanical because it changes with posture and movement, but of course my anxiety starts spiraling because of the surgery history and prior myelomalacia.

Has anyone around the 1-year mark experienced flare-ups like this after overworking, poor sleep, PT, or posture retraining? Did your traps/scapular muscles stay sensitive for a long time after ACDF?

Would really appreciate hearing from others who’ve gone through this.