WP running well – now Error establishing a database connection –

I am running 2.8.2
I accessed the website and the dashboard today about noon, a few hours later, all I get is a “Error establishing a database connection” when trying to access. NOthing changed.
I have a ticket into the host, but don’t think its on their end.

Is there a way to get directly to the page that says:
WordPress Login:
user:
pass:
??
I thought maybe that page and the wp password somehow got corrupted?

I have ftp’d over the wp_config.php and checked that all the info is correct. I checked through CPanel the data base stuff was correct.

I don’t know what to do at this point. It’s a new set up, but I haven’t done a ‘decent’ backup as things are changing hourly while I put it together.

I guess I should mention that I have set up WP using a
ip address~username
It has worked just beautifully until now. I don’t see why all of a sudden I would get the database error???

Any help would be appreciated.
thank you
~bobbi