Post assignment traumatic stress syndrome

As a sufferer of Rheumatoid arthritis I thought I had the condition under control with appropriate medication. However, over the last few days this has been proven to be incorrect.
On Monday night I had no sleep due to intense pain in my joints caused by this condition. I was also unable to put any weight on my legs due to the intense pain. The only time I have experienced such pain was 12 months ago before I was diagnosed with this condition.
After having an emergency appointment with my specialist yesterday he asked if I had been under any stress lately??? My response was 'Is the Pope catholic???'
Obviously things like: starting a new job in a new school, group assignments, having a fight with your sons school which resulted in the teacher hanging up on you, witnessing a horrific bus crash full of your friends children, and the usual events that occur in a family with 3 children possibly could put me under a bit of stress.
He also pointed out the warning signs that my body had been giving me over the last few weeks and that I had chosen to ignore may also have contributed to the flaring up of the arthritis.
So today, I find myself at home instead of at work recovering and taking triple the amount of prednisone that I was taking in an effort to get it under control again.
I didn't realise just how stressful the group assignment was.....My group was really wonderful, but with two people used to completing assignments at a very high standard there were lots of last minute re-writes that I was not used to. I usually complete my assignments ahead of time and submit them early in case there are any unforeseen problems. they on the other hand work on them until the last minute, (which is probably why they do so well). Unfortunately I found that incredibly stressful.
Oh well, the doctor has said to reduce the stress in my life.......unfortunately I don't have any ideas how to do that, and it is too late to drop a subject so I guess I will plough on until the end of the year. In the meantime, I think I will go and watch Oprah!