question: I have been experiencing pain that seems to radiate from my center back to the front in the sternum area. This has been off and on for about a year.  I had my gallbladder removed 2 months ago and my liver has been checked also. I was told that the surgeon looks around to make sure nothing isn't going on out of the ordinary.  I stop having this pain about 2 weeks after surgery.  I recently started drinking carbonated drinks again and was told  by my friend who is  a nurse that the drinks that I've been drinking probably caused this problem.  So I'm sticking to drinking water only.