I finally found some answers. Beginning with the update to version 56.0.1, all users of 32-bit FireFox who have systems with at least 2GB of RAM will automatically be moved to 64-bit FireFox. However, there are reports from people with supposedly qualifying systems that are experiencing a number of problems. One in particular mentioned using photography processing programs and having many problems.
Around midnight I found Adobe had released updates for their Creative Cloud software (Photoshop and LightRoom) that I use. After I installed them I found that Photoshop would no longer function as it should and I was forced to find a restore point on my Windows machine to get back to the version that worked. One result was that FF 56.0.1 was rolled back to 56.0.0 (32-bit).
I subsequently learned this morning that I need to re-install FireFox with the 32-bit version of 56.0.1 and not just accept the upgrade. Allegedly by doing so, future upgrades will continue to be 32-bit.
And I'm still left with the problem of not being able to get future Adobe upgrades. While I should have far more than enough system (AMD 8-core 3.4 GHz/16 GB RAM/AMD Radeon 2 GB graphics card to handle their programs, I there may be a problem with support for some AMD products.
So, today I will go and take more photographs and get involved with Adobe support tomorrow.