Hello dear, After going through your history, I believe you have do not have any serious concern and I will try to help you out of this situation. See, cough is a process in which the muscles of chest as well as the abdomen are involved. These muscles are attached to the bony structures like the vertebra or the ribs or pelvis with the help of ligaments. If the intensity of cough is high, the contraction of muscle is in high and so the pulling force to the bony structures. as the bony are too strong, all the force gets concentrated to the ligaments which might get turn if the force is high. So relax, most likely there is strain in your ligaments which will be ok in due course with healing of the injury. In the mean time you can have some analgesic with muscle relaxant ( eg Flexon MR) to make yourself comfortable. You can add warm compress locally and also pain relieving gel with soft hands, but do not massage. I hope I could solve your query. Please do not hesitate to clarify more doubts for the same situation. Thank you for the way you are in my life. Dr Ipsit Panda