Hi anonymous,
I have to ask you first of all how you managed to post as “anonymous”. the forum settings are set to only allow registered users to post (although anyone can read them) and when I tried to post anonymously it went to a login page (as it’s supposed to).
Can you let me know how you did this (if you know)?
In any case … your doctor is clearly not so knowledgeable about mattresses and mattress quality and value. The first thing I would suggest is to read this article which will help you avoid most of the worst quality or value choices when you are mattress shopping (including Tempurpedic).
If you want some basic information about mattresses and the materials that are in them … then I would read the overviews in the mattress section of the site. Scanning (not studying) these will give you the basic information that will help you ask better questions and know when you are being “sold” a story or when someone has the knowledge, skill, and experience to truly help you you make your best quality and value choices. Once you’ve read these … you will probably know more about some basic mattress information than your doctor and for that matter most of the mattress salespeople in the mass market outlets.
As you can see from the first article … finding a better outlet can be a much more important first step than finding a mattress. At the “wrong” outlet … almost anything you buy will not be a great choice. At the right outlet … almost anything you buy with some good help will be a good choice.
The better choices that are near you that I’m aware of within a reasonable distance are in post #2 here. There is a more categorized list with more descriptions of many of them in post #7 here.
One of these (Shovlin Mattress Factory in Fanwood) is a member of this site and is right in your back yard ( and I would probably start there :))
Hope this helps
Phoenix