Peabody Tulips

 We did not get to North Manchester last spring during tulip time. On Sunday we had a nice Mexican meal at a restaurant in the town, then headed to Peabody Retirement Community. I was a little disappointed. There were not as many tulips as in past years. The timing was good, however, as most of the flowers were open.

The area around the carillon tower was planted in tulips as usual.

The red bud trees are also in full bloom throughout northern Indiana.

It was a pleasant day but quite windy.

This iron bench used to have tulips plus a few other things like hyacinth and daffodils. Now the tulips have been replaced with irises. I love irises so I enjoyed them. With irises you don't have to dig up the bulbs and replant new ones as Peabody has regularly done through the years with the tulips.

An area around a fountain and pergola that used to have tulips now has narcissi.

I noticed more rogue tulips this year, that is bulbs in a different color than the planting which were probably holdovers from last year. With the extra responsibilities from the pandemic, it may be that Peabody did not have as many staff to work with the tulips or perhaps they had volunteers in the past and don't now.

My husband went with me to Fort Wayne to the orthopedics complex today. I had only been seeing a nurse practitioner in Warsaw. This was a huge place with imaging and offices and a "hospital" attached. I got the impression the hospital was for day surgeries or procedures. There is an orthopedic hospital near Lutheran also in the neighborhood though.

I saw my x-rays which definitely show degenerative scoliosis. I wasn't surprised because the physical therapist mentioned that something was wonky back there and asked if I had been told I have scoliosis. The MRI images were explained. I have severe lumbar stenosis (narrowing) in several places. The nurse practitioner showed us an almost normal level, then scrolled down to compromised levels. In the normal one you could see a round figure where the spinal cord travels. In one of the degenerated ones, it was so squashed you couldn't see a circle at all. My options were to try epidural injections or do nerve conduction studies if I thought I wanted to have surgery. With two cervical spinal surgeries in the past 17 months I didn't think I could face lumbar surgery without giving the injections a try. Recovery from lumbar surgery is lengthy and hard. I thought I would finally meet the doctor, but she said he would have only come in if I wanted to know about surgery or if the images had something she didn't understand. 

I have a referral to a pain management doctor who does the injections. She thought he sometimes comes to Warsaw, but on his web page I see no mention of that. I should hear from his office this week. If the injections help, I should know within a few weeks after I receive them. So I plod along through the medical protocols. My husband did ask if we could have an application for a handicap card to hang on the mirror of the card. It is  good for 6 months. Hopefully by then I will be better.