During the summer of 2002 I had a swollen lymph between my cheek and ear. I had tests that showed that had I low CD4 cells. I had more blood tests (Toxoplasma, Hep, anti-HIV1-HIV2...ALL NEGATIVE) that showed EBV (Ebstein Barr Virus) IgG..what is IGG?

After that i had lots of stress that let to heartburn. Recently I was in the hospital for lower right abdominal pain (the doctor's opinion was either appendix or gallstones) which went away after 2 days. Ever since I could feel 2 of my nodes one on the left side of my neck and one just above my collar bone...they haven't gone larger or smaller.... no pain and or other symptoms.. please advise..could it be Hodgkins?

Most antibodies which health care providers send off for are are two classes-- IgM and IgG. IgG antibodies indicate PAST infection. IgM antibodies indicate CURRENT infection. So typically what happens when one gets an infection, is that the IgM antibody goes up. In time, over the course of weeks, the IgM will begin to decline. At that point, IgG antibodies go over; IgG helps with long lasting immunity. So if you have EBV IgG, this means that at some point in your life, you've had an EBV viral infection. EBV is a very common virus, most folks (HIV+ or HIV-) have had an EBV infection. This infection might have happened 6 months ago, 6 years ago, or decades ago. IgG antibodies don't give a clue as to when it occurred.

In terms of your lymph nodes, indications for biopsy would be if they grow in size, if you are systemically ill (fever, chills, night sweats, weight loss). You might want to just watch what happens with your lymph nodes for a little more time before jumping into a biopsy.