no camera in notes - tried all recommended helps to no avail

Are you sure your notes were stored on iCloud, not some other account?

You might want to check if you have iCloud Notes enabled and if you do, check Recently Deleted. If nothing, go to iCloud.com, sign in to your account and see if you can access your notes. If nothing is found on iCloud.com, contact AppleCare to see if they can help.

If you don’t see it, that’s because account where you trying to add new note or edit an existing one allows to add text only.

The option is available for iCloud and local account only.

I went in and turned on my notes to back up to the cloud. I had it off to try to save storage. After I turned it on, I now have my camera in notes.