Then I did a "bitcoin -rescan -blockload=/tmp/BLK0001.DAT -blockload=/tmp/BLK0002.DAT".
blockload? the syntax for loading from a download of the blockchain datafiles is -loadblock
-loadblock=<file1> -loadblock=<file2>
But now the bitcoin client is open and its just sitting at about 14500+ blocks behind.
Are you possible in a disk full condition?
The debug.log will give a more specific clue for troubleshooting.
What can I do to salvage my wallet.dat ?
The wallet.dat is a completely separate file from the blockchain. It sounds like there's no problem with that.
So check the syntax on -loadblock and if you had it wrong, try it again using the proper syntax.