I switched to Colemak-DH on a split keyboard. My hands thank me too much. They are always rested!

And the shoulders, the best part of split keyboard is the open shoulders! It feels good to work on the split keyboard. One of the best investment!

I am glad you created a layout for yourself!

Considering speed, I am all recovered and even surpassed by QWERTY speed. I am average (~60wpm) when it comes to typing speed so it wasn't hard to catch up to it.

My switching experience was also similar to yours. Get to ~35 wpm and start using. It took me 14 hrs to reach there (1hr deliberate practice everyday for 2 weeks.)