Medicare provided me a very basic electric hospital bed. That bed is far from being a luxurious one but it filled my expectations. Since it is electric, it has a control that I can operate at will letting me raise the feet or the head whenever I need to. This gives me a sense of independence -which is highly emotionally appreciated among handicapped people. That is the positive comment. The negative one is that the mattress that came with that bed was a killer one. It was so thin that many nights I thought the middle rail of the bed -right where the bed bends-would also bend my body. And the vinyl cover soaked my back with sweat.
After months of sleepless nights on that original 'free' mattress, I came to the conclusion, that if I wanted to achieve a decent good night, I had to buy a thicker mattress. An expense I did not want to do but I had no other choice. So, after a careful search of thick but 'affordable' mattresses that could be used in electric hospital beds, I bought one for around $500.00 At first, I thought I had hit 'jackpot'. The new mattress felt delicious in comparison to the thin mattress provided by Medicare.
Until...I realized that aside from not killing my back, it was not helping me much more. I could not turn on it or even move an inch. Despite using satin sheets -which supposedly helps to move- I could not move at all, even if it was just slightly enough to let me achieve a better position, I could not do it. My feet, my legs, my hips, remained as if they had been glued to the surface of the mattress. A few months after trying to adjust to this second mattress, I knew that it was not going to ever work for me.
Again I was confronted with the problem which I am sure many muscular dystrophy sufferers have on their minds all night long: How to find out what mattress to get? Which one will be the one that helps me? And of course, another big worry is how will I pay for it?
Searching the Internet in the hopes to find advice I came across the following article: https://www.mda.org/quest/article/one-good-turn which I highly recommend reading. I read it many times and finally, I understood that for me, the best choice was the ALTERNATING PRESSURE MATTRESS. Unfortunately, it is also the most expensive. I did very serious research on this type of mattress and even tried to delay having to purchase it because it would literally cost a fortune for me to buy it.
Meanwhile, I was having terrible nights, not being able to sleep which also caused my poor husband equally bad nights.
My research had led me to a medical equipment supplier who was courteous and seemed very knowledgeable- my husband and I decided to invest a good chunk of our savings into a MA90Z microAIR Lateral Rotation Mattress w/ Compressor. This was 9 months ago. At first, I was disappointed because after a few hours on the mattress I would wake up feeling as if I had sunk on a deep ditch. But after trying different settings, finally, we discover the one good for me. Now I sleep more or less comfortably most of the night. The settings my husband uses when firing up the bed for me at night are: First button: POWER ON- Second button: TURN LEFT & RIGHT- Third button:10 MINUTES-Then comes to the firmness settings which he chooses #9.
