winter training and ICE

Hello fellow athletes,  Last night I was out for my scheduled  training run for Grandmas marathon, I was on my 6 mile pace  run, and everything was going perfect, half mile from home I decided to bump the pace up , and do sort of a sprint the rest of the way home,  without warning, I hit a patch of ice, my left ankle turned inward, and  I was down for the count ...felt like I was struck by lightning, I was in pain, and no way could stand or walk at the point. It was 8 pm, dark outside on  a country road, with my house being the closest for help, no cell phone with, and  - 5 , I knew i better get moving, I started crawling on the side of the road towards home about 100 feet or so I saw car lights coming, I stood up  ,  and tried to balance on my right foot and began to flag down the vehicle and  thank God he saw me,  The gentleman assisted me into his pickup, and gave me a ride home, My wife assisted me into the house, and after a few minutes of gathering my thoughts, I decided to make a ER visit, I was very worried I broke something, as I have never witnessed a popping noise with a twisted ankle  on my body before.  The swelling was about the size of a baseball by the time I arrived at the hospital.  The DR. on duty was nice, but older, and by know means a athlete, he ordered x-rays, and was happy to report back to me , that he did not see anything to alarming  ( I hope he is right)  sent me home with orders of r.e.s.t , vicoden , and stated it was  a severe sprain, and may take weeks to get better...oh great !   This is a long post, but I  feel it is worthy of a few good points , and hope it may help others some day to make good decisions .  1) Consider cell phones on night runs or anytime for that matter. 2) let spouse or someone know what time you should be back, and let someone know your set route you will be on. 3) remember Ice  sucks to run on.       Here I am sitting at home with a hugely swollen left ankle, and wondering what my next steps for recovery should be, If anyone has ANY info that may help me out,,,,I'm asking for your kindness in replies!   This year at Grandmas marathon , for the first time I was going to be running with  my Daughter and son in law, and my wife is training for the half,with the hopes of winning a lottery position pick.   I  have never had a injury to this extent, nothing that has side lined me longer than a week anyways,,   thanks for any help in advance,    Jim