Could be due to positioning during surgery.

It does sound a bit like some of the symptoms I had from my RSI/TOS.
a chronic repetitive injury.
"swallowing, choking and sleeping" I was having spasms in the neck/chest/collarbone area & my top rib was getting pulled up into the collarbone squeezing the brachial plexus area (arm blood flow & nerves affected)

did you have any shoulder/arm/ hand symptoms before the surgery?
Were they all supposedly due to the c spine issues?

Did you have an injury that caused the need for the ACDF or was it a degenerative condition ?
whiplash, repetitive or desk job?