HELP!! Sims 4 control panel has disappeared. No live, build/buy mode

First and foremost, I've been traveling and I don't know if that has some impact on my game but I played fine in the airport.

I installed the new holiday pack and careers update and went into my game. It said the two updates had been installed. Everything loaded fine but when I finally got to my household there were no controls available for me to actually PLAY with my sims. No live mode, the entire panel has disappered. There is no build/buy mode either. The only controls that show up are gallery, camera, notifications, and options menu but I can't actually click on ANY of them and have to go to task manager to exit the game. I also can't click on anything in the game (no 'go here' or 'cook' etc) but my sims are still moving, building skills, etc but I have no control over them. What is happening!!!! I'm completely sure this has to do with the update because I have never had a problem with sims 4 even after installing mods - I never even had the baby glitch!

I uninstalled sims 4 (huge mistake) and it took almost 3 days to reinstall because of limited internet here and nothing has changed. I've updated origin, uninstalled all of my saves and removed all of my mods and still nothing! PLEASE HELP!! I realllly want to play sims on the beach!! I would add a photo of what I'm seeing but I don't see that as an option. Is anyone else having this issue?? It's horrible!!!