Hi DMSexton47,
Thanks for taking the time to share another update. Again I’m sorry to hear that your mattress isn’t working out as well as you hoped for but at least the good news is that you have the foresight to choose an online mattress that has a great return policy so you had the chance to try the mattress without any risk (outside of the time you spent sleeping on it or the time and effort involved in returning it and choosing a different mattress).
Latex certainly has an unusual and highly resilient “feel” that is one of the reasons that some people love it (I’m one of them) and some people don’t. It can certainly take some getting used to for those that have never slept on a latex pillow before and you aren’t the first one that has compared it to sleeping on a balloon (see post #18 here).
Latex can also have a smell when it’s new (see post #2 here) and some people are more sensitive to the smell than others although it’s not harmful in any way. It can also depend on the type of latex and shredded latex can smell stronger initially as well but as you discovered it will generally dissipate to levels that most people don’t notice (or at least doesn’t affect them) fairly quickly (usually over the course of a few days or occasionally a few weeks) once it has had a chance to air out.
Phoenix