I'm a little panicked. My iPhoto library is missing LOTS of photos

I was in a hurry and needed to grap a few photos from my iPhoto library.  I received a message that something about upgrading the software and Mavericks blah blah blah but in any case, it wouldn't let me see my photos until I clicked "upgrade" or "yes" or whatever that option was.  It said something about taking an hour. But when I clicked it, I could see my library immediately, but only with a very few librarys. Please please tell me all the others are somewhere where I can access them!  Literally thousands of photos are missing. A decade of photos.
Thanks.

Lets star with some details
What version of iPhoto and of the OS do you have? Note your profile states OS X 10.4.7 - is that correct?
best solution is to restore your backup from before this happened
LN

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