HELP!! Major knots--Need encouragement

Hi--
I have pubic-length dark reddish brown hair, but two major sections have been knotted HORRIBLY. I had it in a ponytail, ignored it for a week, and this was the result. I think the hair absorbed the perspiration on my back, and then curled up onto itself.
So far, nothing works, just hair by hair detangling, and alot of that even breaks off. A FOOT of hair is in a tight 1x1x3 knot on the left, and the right is looser, but big, a foot of hair in a 1 x2x4 softer knot.
1). Has anyone really had success getting them out?
2)Is the hair ruined afterwards? Should I keep trying? Last week I spent @30 hours at it...I will keep at it IF I can just hear that it WILL work!!! This is so awful...I don`t want to lose this, AND it`s hair from the back, so it would be REALLY noticeable. Thanks! ~Distraught

Oh no! Big mistake! You don`t EVER ingnore long hair like that! EVER! I learned my lesson the hard way, THREE TIMES! Now please read this message. I know it will be scary but it is for your own good. The first time I was 14. I ignored my below bra length hair for a few weeks and it was a wonder I didn`t have to have it all cut off. My mom`s friend is a hairdresser and it took her four hours to fix it with peanut oil, thinning shears and ripping a hairbrush through it. It took two years for the breakage to grow back out. The secound time I was in a Renaissance festival. I was so happy because it had been three years and my hair was full again and waistlength, and I could pull off all the period hairstyles. Then, once again I didn`t brush it for a few days, and one day it was so matted a couple of girls I worked with wanted to help me. The hairbrush tore out about half of my hair. Over a year later, what do you know? I let it go again! This time the breakage was so bad I had to cut my waistlength hair up to my shoulders. At the time I was relieved, but after awhile I wanted it long again. Now it is below bra length and the leftover breakage from two years ago remains only on the ends. If the breakage is only about a foot up and your hair is publc length, it you just cut off the matted part your hair would still be pretty long, above waistlength. If you don`t want to do that then it probably is best to work on it a little at a time. That is what I had to do, pull out one hair at a time even though some of them broke. After that is done gently run a brush through it to get any loose hairs. Then, cut off the really ratty part and get a trim every two months to let the breakage repair itself and so the rest of the hair won`t be affected. Use the best moisturizing conditioners you can find. In the future though NEVER go more than a day without brushing your hair. Even if you do have a lot of breakage, in my head it`s lookin` a lot better than it did with me because yours is very long so the breakage should only be to the middle of your back at the highest. Mine was around my ears! Rapunzel, please email me and let me know how it turned out. I`d very muhc love to hear from you.