Problem after 2.8.3 upgrade

I upgraded from 2.7 to 2.8.3 this morning. When I click on “comments” in the dashboard, this is what I see:

WordPress database error: [Lost connection to MySQL server during query]
SELECT * FROM wp_posts WHERE ID = 22 LIMIT 1

WordPress database error: [MySQL server has gone away]
SELECT comment_post_ID, COUNT(comment_ID) as num_comments FROM wp_comments WHERE comment_post_ID IN ( '0' ) AND comment_approved = '0' GROUP BY comment_post_ID

WordPress database error: [MySQL server has gone away]
SELECT * FROM wp_posts WHERE ID = 22 LIMIT 1

WordPress database error: [MySQL server has gone away]
SELECT comment_post_ID, COUNT(comment_ID) as num_comments FROM wp_comments WHERE comment_post_ID IN ( '0' ) AND comment_approved = '0' GROUP BY comment_post_ID

WordPress database error: [MySQL server has gone away]
SELECT * FROM wp_posts WHERE ID = 221 LIMIT 1

WordPress database error: [MySQL server has gone away]
SELECT comment_post_ID, COUNT(comment_ID) as num_comments FROM wp_comments WHERE comment_post_ID IN ( '0' ) AND comment_approved = '0' GROUP BY comment_post_ID

WordPress database error: [MySQL server has gone away]
SELECT * FROM wp_posts WHERE ID = 221 LIMIT 1

WordPress database error: [MySQL server has gone away]
SELECT comment_post_ID, COUNT(comment_ID) as num_comments FROM wp_comments WHERE comment_post_ID IN ( '0' ) AND comment_approved = '0' GROUP BY comment_post_ID

WordPress database error: [MySQL server has gone away]
SELECT * FROM wp_posts WHERE ID = 238 LIMIT 1

I performed the upgrade manually and all seemed to go well.

Also, the dashboard is almost completely blank. Here’s a screenshot of what I see:

https://img.skitch.com/20090805-fxxg8tyj4bac2j6wpeq9qghqsw.png