Bulging/herniated disc question

A couple of years ago, right before Covid hit, I was diagnosed with a slight bulging disc in my neck. The neurosurgeon I went to said it wasn't that bad, and didn't suggest surgery, but instead he prescribed physical therapy. I did maybe 6-8 weeks of that, 2-3 days a week at the therapist with varying exercises, and ending with traction. They also left me with some at home instructions to do on the days I didn't come in. Ended up with a standing desk as a result of it, and some exercises to continue doing at home once I was done with going in to maintain. I still do a series of stretches and resistance band exercises a few days a week to help with posture.

Back then my main symptom was a tingling/numb sensation starting in the fingertips of my left hand, and then sometimes it would travel up my arm. After a month of therapy, that sensation was totally gone.

Right after Thanksgiving this year, I started having some tightness/pain in the middle of my back. Not up high near the neck, and not down in the lower back. I chalked it up to traveling for the holiday, not sleeping in our memory foam bed, and racking up several hours behind the wheel over a short period. My wife said her back was tight as well so we just thought sleeping in a small old bed at the house we were staying in was the cause. I got a cortisone shot after a week of dealing with it, and that helped for about a month. Then the same thing happened right after New Years. Except it was just me this time, she was fine. So now, given my history with the disc in the neck, I'm starting to wonder what's going on in my back.

I exercise a few days a week on our Peloton, and the days I do that, it loosens up. It is on recovery/rest days that it tightens back up. So I know that getting myself moving helps, but I'm a little concerned on what to do next. I'm thinking get an appointment with an orthopedic group and hope I can just figure out some PT to do to alleviate the pain. I've got a couple of different foam rollers, a tens unit, heating pad, and massage gun, but even using all of those at different times only gives me relief temporarily.

Have any of you dealt with similar issues, and can you tell me what you did to get relief? I've always been pretty healthy, and don't do any physical or manual labor that would be aggravating it. Work a desk job and I've lost a good bit of weight in the last 3-4 months, so I would expect carrying less weight would only help things but it seems to have popped up after I had lost about 20 lbs. Don't think it is related to that, and I feel great otherwise, it just gets annoying for those couple of days a week that it tightens up on me.