It sounds like you are taking good care already. When soft tissue is damaged, there is a 6 to 8 wk healing time based on things going on at the cellular level; my understanding is that it is easy to mess up and redamage (and make acute injuries into chronic ones) but not much way to speed the healing - things like RICE, etc are good for healing but simply create an optimal healing environment during the above time period. In terms of ice vs heat: the usual rule of thumb is ice to an acute injury during the first three days PLUS whenever swelling recurs; heat to spasmed muscles and to chronic injuries. For things like arthritis and the intermediate healing period, mostly the advice now seems to be: whichever feels better to you.