Brutal pain. When does this finally end?

Unfortunately, it seems I've joined the sciatica club.

So I've been having a flare up for just around a month now.

The last couple of years I've had 3 or 4 much more minor bouts of this leg pain but I always chalked it up to a pulled muscle or tendon something like that and after a couple weeks I was good. Back to normal.

This time it's different. It's been so bad that a couple weeks ago I took off work to go to urgent care, and they diagnosed me with sciatica. On the better days, it hurts but I can deal with it. Then are days like today where it's almost impossible to even walk. Pain is constant no matter what I do and the only thing I can think about.

It was getting a lot better over the weekend so I thought I was on the mend, but yesterday bam it's back with a vengeance. Today it's as bad as the day I had to take off work. At least.

When will this end? I can't take it any more! Especially at night. Can't sleep more than an hour at a time.

I called my PCP today and let him know what's going on. He put me on a 6 day regimen of prednisone which I started this afternoon. Also gave me some tramadol which isn't really doing much.

Asked him if I should get an MRI so we know what we're dealing with, and he said yes but unfortunately insurance usually makes you try PT first. That's insane. Seems like that could make it worse and you should know what's actually going on first.

Sorry for the wall of text. That was longer than I meant it to be.