Is it possible to cough hard enough to crack your ribs?

About six weeks ago I got the flu and after a few days in bed I was well enough to get to work but not exercise. During the next 3+ weeks I coughed almost constantly. At first the coughs were shallow and frequent, but towards the end much less frequent but deep and hard. At about that time my ribs on my right side started to hurt. I just figured I pulled something.

The cough is now mostly gone and I have started to exercise, but I am still feeling pain in my ribs on my right side. Coughing is painful as is sneezing, something I do a bit this time of year with all the ragweed. Sleeping on my back impossible so I have to sleep on my left side. If I apply pressure to my sternum I feel pain in my ribs to the right.

So my two questions are...
1) Is it possible to crack a rib by coughing or have I just pulled something?
2) If I have cracked a rib, should I take a break from running? Cycling seems OK and running only hurts a little bit, but the night after any runs seem more painful than at other times.

I have no races planned at this time, so I only doing easy base training. I hate to take any time off since I've already take six weeks off due to the flu.

Thanks,
Victor

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