Thanks for your honesty Thomas,
It sounds as though you've gone through (and still are!) going through some significant challenges with your dissertation. I do hope things fall into place for you soon!!
This is a great point for supervisors though, not only the guidance they provide of the concept of the research and the methods for the dissertation are important. Also important is guiding students of what can occur with ethics approval timelines and with regards to the research, what can reasonably be accomplished in the short time span that is the dissertation. Thanks for sharing this with us and I really do hope you get a green light to start soon!
Cheryl