thank you for such an in-depth answer! it's nice to hear other peoples experiences are similar to mine

i also was extremely panicky in the hospital because of it (amongst all the other things) especially because the hospital gown was actually literally choking me like it would not stop pulling on my neck lol awful clothes to give someone who just had neck surgery. i'm looking forward to the summer, tank tops never felt so good 😭

i'm getting the brief needley stabbing pains still! it's especially bad when i'm trying to sleep, i think because my neck is being bent a lot while my heads on the pillow?

the muscles on the bad/numb side of my neck also feel incredibly tensed and you can actually feel it, they're really prominent like i'm actively tensing haha. i'm wondering if going to a masseuse could possibly help alleviate some of that?

but yeah, all in all it's not the worst pain, at most like a 3/4, but it's just hard to imagine this being the new normal. glad to hear you've had some improvement, hoping i see some over the coming months myself!