Dear TMU community,
I am a 33 year old 200 lb 6’ 2’’ male located in the Netherlands and I have been suffering from a horrible sciatica because of a herniated l4 l5 disc for almost a year. I’ve found this forum after so many failed attempts to achieve a mattress that relieves my sciatic pain. I’m a side sleeper and finding a suitable mattress in Europe has been really hard for me. I’ll share my experience so far, hoping that it can lead to a better understanding of my situation:
IKEA vagstranda firm: unstable, fell apart after one month. Initially too firm but now is too soft and can feel the springs. Made my sciatica worse.
IKEA vanetstrom medium firm: Too soft, made my sciatica so much worse.
Emma hybrid: Initially comfortable but fell apart after 2 weeks. It’s now too soft, can feel the springs. Now is making my sciatica worse.
Verapur orthopedic extra firm: Too firm, made my sciatica worse. Stable after 1 month use.
Verapur king firm: too soft, made my sciatica worse.
I’ve become a bit exhausted from all these failures and I’m deciding to recycle some of the mattresses to make my own comfortable mattress. I’m down thousands for new mattresses and I’m so annoyed that there doesn’t seem to be a mattress that fits the need of people suffering from low back pain and sciatica, especially considering how common it is.
Any advice for achieving the much needed comfortable mattress is greatly appreciated.
I dont know what stores you have there in the Netherlands, but Vita Talalay home base is in the Netherlands. Perhaps if you were able to build a DIY with a Firm, Medium, Medium talalay construction (bottom to top) might be a good starting point. It could beginning and ending as it might land you right where you need to be. Vita Talalay Store finder in the netherlands.
Hello maverick,
And thank you for the response.
From what I understood, it is possible to make a very firm mattress or base more tolerable by adding toppings.
Considering that I have the intention of also having springs, would you think it would be a good idea to recycle the springs of the Verapur mattress that was too firm, remove the foams, and add medium latex to it?
Or maybe recycle the springs of the Verapur mattress that was too soft and add firm topping?
Best regards.
I am never a big fan of reusing a spring support layer, unless it is known not to have been compromised in any way and is relatively new and without any issues.
Also, investigating the springs from the mattress are being reused, could be critical. Was glue used, is a good quality spring layer from the beginning,. Will it compromise or compliment the layers being added?
Sometimes the variables out weight the desire to resuse, than the small cost to relace with a spring layer with known characteristics the act as a baseline for any issues that may develop.