Sorry to hear about the discs, that must really hurt. So acupunture really works on the sciatic? Some days I can barely walk. I have often thought of going but instead go to massage therapy, deep tissue therapy. I will look into it, we have lots of clinics around here. As for the doctor issue, here is the same. Hard to get one if you need it. I have had the same doctor for over 25 years. Our medical system is different in Canada, so makes it hard to compare with yours.

I've been told that statistically acupuncture is useless. But, ya know what? If it WORKS, who cares? And it worked wonders for me. Regular chiro did me up just fine when it was just an inflamed sciatic nerve. It could only do so much for the discs and then they wanted to send me to a surgeon. I said no fucking WAY am I letting anyone cut my back open, I want pain management.
Sent me to a PM doc, he put me on a medicine related to Neurontin that made me incredibly sick. I told that doc I wanted something else, he proposed nerve blocks. I said that's too invasive, I don't want these drug therapies, let's try acupuncture first.
I ended up with a FANTASTIC lady, really knew her shit, and she got me back to fully 80% recovered. But it doesn't last forever, I moved, she moved, and here we are. So, yeah, I would try the acupuncture if you can get in to see good one (like docs, not all are the same).