kernel update hoses system

A new kernel came out this morning so I updated to it using apt, having seen a security announcement a couple of days ago. How very silly of me. Alas, this has comprehensively hosed my system and I can no longer boot up, messages complaining about being unable to find the correct reiserfs and sata modules. Any way out or is it a reinstall? In which case I think it will be with Debian as I can't see them issuing an update like this. Hello there, SuSE techs: if you want to issue kernel updates that hose systems, be my guest. But in that case SuSE will join the couple of hundred other distros out there and few or no people use because they are so buggy and unreliable. There was a time when SuSE was a cut above all this. :) Fish