Yes mate, suffered from it for years and I feel for you but please read through what's happened to me as it may give you ideas of routes to take....
Was it a single event that made it happen or has it got gradually worse? I first did mine about 10 years ago playing rugby and it's been back a few times since.
I was at Uni and hobbled along to the local doctor [was in Southampton] who laid me on his couch, moved a leg and told me it would just go away in a few days... didn't even give me painkillers..
THE SAME DAY, my sister and brother in law came to visit me. My brother in law is a Doctor and was in the army at the time. He took me straight down to the Army hospital in Haslar where I was PROPERLY examined by their sports doctor [it involved a finger up the arse too
] and was told it was sciatica.
He gave me proper painkillers, anti inflammatorys and booked me in to start with the NHS physio....
3 months later i was playing rugby again.
Most GPs are brilliant but they are NOT back experts...
Then about 5 years ago I was bending to pick something up and it went again! My mum took me to some healer bloke who had a garden like Mr Miyagi. He was basically a cunt
He told me my skull was out of line, I had an intolerance to sugar and my mum's birth canal was the cause
So I went to see my GP back home who LUCKILY is married to the spinal surgeon at the local hospital and she referred me to him.
He did a full examination including one of those horrible scans in the big tube. After a bit of fucking about he put me on another course of physio for 3 months [which included water therapy and the sticking needles all over me] but it got no better this time [the extra years and beers meant I wasn't as fit
] so I ended up having a caudal epidural [basically an injection into the base of the spine]. After some more physio it got better, took a bit longer but I was back out playing golf within 6 months!
Then this Easter after a 7 hour drive to the Lake District I could hardly walk! There was no crack or single event that did it, just the hours in the car... I could get some relief in certian positions but it was probably worse than the other times as I was walking like an old man...
A bloke we use to valet our cars suggested I went to see his Chiropractor. I'd never really considered them before as they all seem to be quacks but I thought I'd give it a go rather than have more fingers stuffed up my arse [outside of my leisure time
]!!
The Chiropractor after a couple of prods IMMEDIATELY diagnosed what the first GP failed to see and the spinal surgeon required thousands of pounds worth of scans and time to find out... He massaged me then clicked me about and the relief was instant.
The pain comes back a few days after I see him, I was seeing him 4 times a week [ok, it's expensive at £40 a pop, but I'd pay £4000 a pop if it cured it!] and now i'm down to once every 3 weeks!
I am genuinely surprised by how much he's helped in such a short period of time and have a lot of faith in him as I'm ALREADY back playing Golf
So I've kind of gone most routes except open surgery.... and [touch wood] the chiropractor seems to be the best for me...
The back really is complex though and you should ask to be referred as soon as you can to a specialist!
Depending on where the pain is the best excercise you can do is this:
1. Lie on your tummy
2. put your arms up a if you're going to do a push up
3. push up but keep your hips on the floor so you're arching your back
4. When you reach the point it starts to hurt back off a bit
5. Hold it for 20-30 seconds
The important bit is stretching to the point BEFORE the pain! Don't stretch through the pain or you'll make it worse!
Anyway buddy, I know it's horrible and I'm sure it'll get better... the best thing you can do though is to excercise your transversal adbominals [deep tummy muscles] as they support the back... if you're carrying any extra weight it's best to get rid of it....
GO SEE A PROPER DOCTOR!