@arowan65 Welcome. I am a cervical spine fusion patient. From experience, I know that spine injuries cause a lot of muscle spasms that start moving the vertebrae around. My C1 and C2 would twist on their own with some sideways shifting as well. All of that causes pain because of all the muscles that connect the skull to the spine when those muscle get stretched by muscle spasms in some of the other muscles. What I might suggest is a good physical therapist. A PT can determine with their hands if your spine is put of alignment and gently tweak it back in place. What has helped me is a PT who also does myofascial release to loosen the overly tight muscle. I had a lot more problems with this prior to the spinal fusion of C5/C6.

I have also had my lower jaw go out of alignment and that has a relationship with C1 and C2 where they influence each other. I have been working with a dentist who does treatment for TMJ issues and who makes oral appliances that are expanding my jaw because it is too narrow. That along with PT has helped my neck stay aligned. It has been 10 years since my spine surgery and my neck is better than before, but I can cause a muscle spasm with overuse of my shoulders that affects my neck. I have learned how to stretch and for the most part can correct muscle spasms and get back into better alignment on my own.

When C1 and C2 were rotated, if I looked upward, it caused vertigo (before spine surgery) and doing that action would likely kink the vertebral artery that runs inside the cervical vertebrae. Rotation would stretch it, and looking up would then bend it. It's not meant to stay like that in a stuck position, but that can happen because of muscle spasms.

It sounds like you may have other levels that developed problems after your disc replacement. With issues described as foraminal stenosis, that is the nerve root which is very predictable where it will cause pain because it is a specific nerve. If you also have some spinal cord pressure of compression, that would be a bit unpredictable as to where symptoms happen, and pain can change location when you move our neck because it can change where the spinal cord may be compressed. The spinal cord needs to glide inside the spinal canal as you change position or bend your neck.

Has your doctor explained structurally how your symptoms are generated by your issues?