I somehow must have missed seeing your post til now.

Have you had the surgery already?

I hope the drs realize that it could set off the RSD and take precautions for that.

do you have any neck, upper back or collar bone pain or symptoms?

Might be hard to sort out if your DDD is in the cervical spine area also.

It just makes me wonder if you might have some version of thoracic outlet syndrome {TOS} and if the carpal tunnel is a symptom of a double crush scenario.

With your many yrs of work duties TOS could be playing a part..