Hi Gerri,
We sound similar in our condition, my voice is going away but still can be understood, I don't like to speak anymore because of the slur, I am in the process of obtaining disabilty, so confusing! I was a real estate agent and you can't do that if you can't speak. I had a cold in Feb of this year and started noticing that I choked on mostly liquids, now I still get around but my breathing is very shallow, I am supposed to get a cough assist and trigolgy machine, my official diagnoses was June 2013, weird, I was cutting my own grass this spring, now I can barely walk around the house without getting out of breath. Like you said, I went to my first ALS clinic and most people are much worse off than I.