I'm truly sorry as I know exactly what you're going through. I've been through the same myself in the past. I've had such horrific sciatica that no position gave me any relief. I couldn't sit, stand, or lay down. I got minimal sleep as I maybe fell asleep for an hour at a time for a total of maybe 203 hours increments through the night. And it went on for a couple months. The only thing that lessened the pain slightly was to have my left knee bent and kind of pulled up. So I even contemplated stuffing a bunch of pillows in a small closet and trying to sleep standing up leaning on my pillows. I felt like I had to climb up a tree and hang upside down or something. The pain was unbearable. It felt as if my leg from my rear all the way down to my ankle was cut open and someone was pouring rubbing alcohol into it 24/7. I tried everything I could think of to no avail. I was really getting desperate so I know how you feel. The worst was that my surgeon was out of the country for a couple months doing teaching of spine surgery in other countries. His group first gave me an appt. with another of their spine surgeons, but then sent me a letter cancelling that appt. b/c that doc was no longer practicing in my state. (Their main office is in another state). So I called back again telling them I could no longer handle this pain and they set me up with my surgeon's PA. I didn't care who I saw at that time. When I saw her, she was quite concerned and they actually got me an MRI approved within about 2 hours! I had no reflexes and no use of my left foot. My surgeon was to return the following week anyway, so they set me up with the first appt. availalbe upon his return. After seeing him, withing a few days, I also got my approval for a nerve block the same week. I had never had insurance approvals done so quickly before. Thank GOD the nerve block really helped my pain!!!! I seem to have good luck with nerve blocks and ESI's helping my nerve pains. Had this not happened, I was starting to go insane and had thoughts of amputating my leg! Turned out I had scar tissue problems and some stuck in a small area where the nerve ran through. I also had more herniations and bulges, plus evidence of more bone overgrowth in some areas, including facet hypertrophy.
I think you have to call the doc and really make it known that you cannot handle the pain... you can no longer deal with it and need something done quickly. At least my MRI realy showed evidence of nerve compression..it wasn't like I was making it up or exagerating. But I don't know what to say regarding how to get you some sleep. Not getting good sleep just makes things worse. It makes the pain worse and also messes up work and daily activities. It's not right for someone to have to suffer through that pain day in and day out with no relief. It literally is torture. I felt as if I was being tortured. You really have to let your doctor know how horribly it is affecting your life. I was even given painkillers while I waited for my surgeon, but painkillers don't seem to do anything for nerve pain. However, more recently, I had another bad nerve pain spell. I called my PM b/c I had a job interview in several days and couldn't imagine going there in such pain and tears. I left them a message about it all and asked for them to call in some steroids for me, since steroids seem to be the only thing that calms my nerves. Thankfully they quickly called it in and taking them did calm it down some, though not fully. Since then, though, I went back to my PM and he worked with me and I've been on Lyrica, tramadol, and SOMA since Feb or March. All three meds together do seem to help a lot, though I still get exacerbations. But it really is torturous on one's being to have that pain 24/7 when there is no relief.