Hi doctor, I am a 36 year old female. I smoke but I have no medical history. I do take medicines for depression. About 2 months ago, I started to lose my voice. Otherwise, I felt fine. I do not have a history of losing my voice, so I assumed I must have picked up a virus. My voice slowly continued to become audibly worse, but still no cold or sore throat. Then about 3 weeks ago, my voice became so hoarse that I had to take a leave of absence from my job because no one was able to understand me anymore; I was audible, but so hoarse and able to speak only at quiet volumes. Now, at this time I started having a hard time in eating. It feels like food is getting stuck in my esophagus and for some reason I cannot breathe. I am drinking water to move the food down. I stopped eating solid food last week due to these choking episodes. If I try to speak now, I get ever so slightly short of breath. I also was developing these noises when I breath in deeply. I thought it as asthma, but I do not have wheezing. And when I got into a situation yesterday, I felt like I was having an attack of some sort that loud sounded and felt like croup. I could barely breath when I inhale and I made a really strange and loud croup noise. It settled out eventually. I think it is probably time to see an ENT to know what is going on. I do not really want to go to the ER because I am not aware if they have an ENT there who they could consult to see what is wrong. Plus, I really do not know what all this could be? And maybe it is not serious and it is just a bad virus too. I am trying to decide if my problem can wait for an ENT visit with a doctor when one becomes available in about two weeks. Should I go to an urgent care or ER? Thank you for your time.
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