About this statement:

I wrote this post yesterday before the bleeding begun but vanished from Steemit’s database for some reason.

Does Steemit have a database? The Steem blockchain is the database for Steemit. The articles may not reach the blockchain if steemit.com is under attack from hackers.
Have you used other sites to check if your article is in the "database"?
I invite you to try Busy.org and join the test of the Busy beta. More info on the Discord channel here.