lost entire “personal” email folders and contents of “sent” mail when moving from pop to imap in windows live mail

i use windows 7 and wlm suddenly just stopped sending and receiving. called charter and tech said it was due to using pop rather than imap. i'd used imap before and found it problematic, but she insisted it was the only fix. i asked no fewer than 3 times if there was any risk of losing my mail, she said it was completely safe. made the switch... poof, personal mailboxes GONE. even contents of sent mail box gone (though that folder remained, just empty now). plus, having all the same imap problems again (setting message flags, no matter what i click on in client; server refusing logon; server has refused the connection, server has terminated the connection; other fun error msgs. however, all are secondary problems to having lost all the email.) can't get back to pop. charter's web wlm support page says i can have dual pop and imap, but the instructions make zero sense. charter refuses to help beyond giving out the url for that or the phone number for microsoft tech support. they, in turn, no longer support wlm. the lost email was REALLY important stuff and i'm pulling my old lady hair out. help?