Mattress update

First, if I sound tired, I've come down with a cold. That's not the only reason for me to be tired, but it makes everything worse. {lop-sided smile}

{bite lips}

Okay, the mattress arrived early Wednesday afternoon, just as I'd hoped. Once it was on my bed, we quickly realized we had a problem that hadn't even occurred to me in the store.

My bed is a raised mate's bed, with several drawers underneath. The slats that my old mattress rested on are a little higher than most chair seats, tho not as high as a kitchen stool. The old mattress was probably 8 inches thick, so it was noticeably high, but not a problem to get on and off. {bite lips}

On Wednesday we put a two inch bed board on top of the slats, because the new mattress is foam, and foam mattresses aren't supposed to rest on slats like the old innerspring mattress did. Then we put the mattress on top of that, adding another foot. (Yes, my new mattress is fully a foot thick. As Dad says, it shouldn't bottom out on me.)

Now I am just under 5 feet, 2 inches high. The bed, bed board, and mattress came to about an inch below my waist. With my severe permanent vertigo/ terrible sense of balance, I have trouble with stairs, so I can't just use a step stool. I had to climb onto it from the floor. I found I could do this. I did so twice that afternoon, and four more times that night. I also managed to strain my back somewhere in there, almost certainly while climbing onto the mattress. {wry smile}

So... crisis. Dad came up with a plan even before I strained my back. He went to the hardware store Thursday, and bought some one by twelves. I took the mattress off, and helped Dad remove the bed board. Then he took out the slats, and put in the one by twelves, making a solid layer. He ended up adding a couple of the slats, because they filled the excess so neatly. I am very relieved that he did this in one day. I suspect he'd normally take two days to do a project this big, but he knew I needed a bed to sleep on that I could get onto. {smile}

Now we didn't need the bed board. All three of us put the mattress back, directly on the new platform. It is now on the high side of hip height to me. It's still not easy to climb onto, but it's no where near as hard as before. I didn't bother to count how many times I got on and off it last night, and I didn't strain my back again, or this morning, when I attempted to nap. (The cold messed up the nap, not the mattress.) {smile}

{bite lips} It's still not good, but it's doable for now. Dad has another idea for the future, involving building a small ramp to give me a little more height without stairs. But he doesn't have to do it today; he just has to do it before my balance goes out. I think I'll need that ramp most when I'm on two canes. Since my balance is relatively good, I can manage until he gets around to it. {Smile}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

New Mattress?

Tomorrow, my new mattress is supposed to be delivered in the afternoon. That's sooner than I expected, but it's not a moment too soon! {Hopeful Smile}

I'm SO looking forward to sleeping on something comfortable again! {REALLY BIG GRIN}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! {REALLY BIG GRIN}

Ours has been good, in a mostly quiet way. The biggest excitement was when a relative called. As far as I'm concerned, that's a very good Christmas. {BIG SMILE, REALLY BIG GRIN}

Anne Elizabeth Baldwin