Hi TenJent,
[quote]I have nerve damage in the back of my heel. I will wake up if the back of my heel touches the mattress. Contact with the inner side of my ankle and the back of my lower calf can also triggers the same sensation. Prior to this damage, I fell asleep on my side or stomach and woke up on my back. Now, I mostly sleep on my side, with short spurts on my stomach with my feet off the bed. That position hurts my back but helps me with my foot.
To make side sleeping work, I twist one foot around the other. This caused sciatica which is now chronic. I have upper back/neck issues from an old car accident but my Oxygen Pillow has really helped. (I have psoriatic arthritis, but that is not currently an issue).[/quote]
Unfortunately I can’t help with the “comfort” or “medical” questions because only you can feel what you feel on a mattress and there are too many unknowns, variables, and personal preferences and sensitivities involved for anyone to be able to predict whether a specific mattress will be a good match for you in terms of PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preferences) based on either specs (yours or a mattress) or "theory at a distance (see mattress firmness/comfort levels in post #2 here). Your own careful testing or personal experience will always be the most reliable way to know whether any mattress is a good match for you in terms of PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preferences).
Post #2 here also has more about the different ways to choose a mattress (local or online) and how to minimize the risks involved with each of them if you aren’t certain that a mattress you are considering is a good “match” for you in terms of PPP.
You’ve probably seen this already but the better options or possibilities I’m aware of in the San Fransisco/Oakland/Berkeley areas are listed in post #2 here.
[quote]After several minutes on the Calico, I had problems with both heel and sciatica with and without pillow between my knees. I’ve pretty much ruled it out. The Alpine also gave me pain, but less. Next, I tried Nordic HDM A. This began to be my frontrunner. By then, however, I hurt so badly that I took a break from the store and came back in the afternoon. I decided to try the Nordic HDM B and latex… I spent the next hour or so trying different positions on the Alpine A, the latex classic hdm A, and the Nordic HDM B and A. Clearly, this was a mistake. I ended up being so confused that I purchased nothing. My preference at the end was for Nordic B or latex A. Which made me think I should reconsider the Savvy Rest Serenity Bed (all dunlp, soft top layer, soft middle layer, medium bottom layer).
I came home and had a horrible nights sleep on my mattress.
Any advice on how to move forward?[/quote]
I would make sure that you are using the testing guidelines in the tutorial post so you have the best possible chance of approximating your actual sleeping experience but it’s also not uncommon to have “testing fatigue” when you are testing many mattresses on a single day and all your experiences begin to blur together (see here and here and here). It may be a good idea to take a break for a few days to let your body “reset” and then go back and only test a few (or perhaps even only one or two) mattresses a day that you know are good “possibilities”.
I’m not sure why only having 1" of latex would result in a lower “value” mattress because a mattress that uses a microcoil instead of latex may actually be a better match for some people in terms of PPP which is the most important part of the “value” of a mattress (see post #13 here). The “raw material” cost of a mattress is among the least important parts of the “value” of a mattress and in most cases the mattresses that are made by the same manufacturer would have similar margins and be in a similar “value” range based on the cost of the materials and components inside them (although in many cases mattresses in higher budget ranges can also have slightly higher margins).
I would also guess your experience was an exception but PPP is so individual that it’s more the “norm” than the exception that a mattress that works well for one person may be completely unsuitable for someone else to sleep on (or vice versa) so I would always rely on personal testing and experience rather than using anyone else’s experience as a reliable way to know whether any mattress is a good “match” for any particular person.
This is also not unusual and while they can be very helpful for some people … they can be detrimental or “neutral” for others. There is more about tension adjustable slat foundations in post #2 here and the posts it links to.
Phoenix