Hi iluves2fish.
Thank you for your kind words of appreciation for TMU and our wonderful team. Great to hear of your daughter’s experience on TMU and that she is passing the word around in trying to inform others. Hope your surgery turned out well and you are well on your way to recovery. Yes, a good sleeping setup would definitely help.
“Ditto” to Emily’s response, our Trusted Member, DIY Natural Bedding is located in Lafayette, Indiana and may be an option you wish to look into and consider. You can call for an appointment and I am sure Deborah will try to accommodate it so that you can try this before purchasing the topper.
Nice to see that EBS has also given you the steps to do a forum search using keywords to pull up more information that may be useful to you. And if you did not do so perhaps skim over this article on how to identify a quality mattress retailer if you want to visit a retailer that is not on our Trusted Members board.
Latex is a good choice of a topper material as it has unique properties that would certainly fit your criteria. If you are used to the memory foam feel and depending of how high your sensitivity threshold around pressure points is (especially after the surgery) you may wish to consider a slow recovery Dunlop latex variant which has similar responsiveness to that of memory foam and is a softer version of the softest Dunlop. A slow recovery Dunlop latex topper can be successfully combined with a mattress that is in good shape and not sagging… This Slow Recovery Latex Foam is produced in the U.S. by Latexco in their Georgia plant. Because of the nature of this product it only comes in “Plush” but I do not know who carries it in your area. I’d avoid the use of memory foam in an RV due to the temperature changes and the possibility of forming mildew and dust mites. Latex is naturally antimicrobial and mildew resistant.
Finally, because I am not very sure how much you’ve read since finding our site I’d make sure that before visiting any local shop you peruse some of our website resources I’ll list below with the following in mind.
• the RV topper is not the only part of the equation when it comes to a best match sleeping environment. A topper generally is selected for a particular surface feel and for adding pressure point relief to an existing mattress or foam layers that are too firm. Because every layer and component in a mattress can affect the feel and performance of every other layer and the mattress “as a whole” … 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) will be based on your own careful testing (hopefully using the testing guidelines in the tutorial) or your actual sleeping experience.
• I’d try to capitalize on the advantage that you are able to drive your RV to the shop and if you prearrange it (by making a phone call in advance) perhaps the rep would agree to let you try the mattress/topper combo directly in the RV. Choosing an appropriate topper/mattress combo is as much a science as an art as all layers, components, and features work together and each person’s body type and sleeping position are an important part of how each person interacts with a mattress. As you may have noticed throughout the site, there are many other interrelated variables as well and this is why I am glad that you are doing a bit of research to understand your own needs and preferences and reach out selectively to a retailer/manufacturer that knows about mattress construction. This can save much time, energy, and frustration.
• Pressure points and pains while sleeping on your side can come from a mattress that is too firm and puts direct pressure on the shoulders, and/or hips that can also result in soreness or numbness and tingling in the arms or can come from postural issues as well. There is a bit more information about sleeping positions and posture in this article here and post #10 here [/url]also include a list with links to many of the forum posts that talk about different symptoms and fine-tuning a mattress that may also provide more insights and be helpful in identifying some of the underlying causes behind different types of discomfort or pain in a sleeping system (the first one links to this post).
• There is more about primary or “deep” support and secondary or “surface” support and their relationship to the firmness and pressure relief and the “roles” of different layers in a mattress in post #2 here and in post #4 here that may also be helpful in clarifying the difference between “support” and “pressure relief” and “feel” that can also provide some useful insights into the reasons for pain and/or discomfort on a mattress.
Looking forward to any updates or questions you may have.
Phoenix