Where are Coins after Swap? Taken Advantage with Gas Fees?

Was swapping Dai for $9 gas fee through Metamask. Then the fees just kept coming. I decided to bite the bullet and pay the extra fees (8x). Got to Queue 1, paid, then nothing, except an activity report showing payments for gas fees that weren’t paid earlier (before getting more ETH). I saw recently on YouTube show that sometimes people get ripped off because they’re caught between two stones. I kept paying, thinking the swap was going through the system, but now I believe I was ripped off. I’m quite frustrated; I don’t want to pay anymore ETH. I want my DAI back. But it does not appear on ETH Mainnet activity log. It’s been six days. (Note: I had done a swap before on Uniswap; I didn’t think Metamask would be that complicated.) Why hadn’t the swap completed? What can I do to get my Dai back? Thanks.