Can my mother live alone? she has temporal arteritis; she is now blind in one eye; she is insulin diabetic; she has inflamatory bowl disease

It's : It's really not possible to say for sure without knowing your mother's overall performance status. There are people with the conditions you've described who would do well on their own , but there are others who would be overwhelmed by any one of them. I guess my biggest concern would be whether she can see well enough to check her blood sugar and give herself insulin. If she's getting steroids for the arteritis, her blood sugar will be very high and difficult to manage.

Maybe, : Maybe, maybe not. It depends upon her ability to complete her activities of daily living (adls) and instrumental adls (iadls). Given what little you've mentioned, i suspect that she is full capable of performing her own adls, eg bathing, feeding, toileting, transferring, etc. However, given her blindness, she may have some difficulties with her iadls, eg cooking, paying bills, shopping, taking medications, etc. She should complete a functional assessment by her family physician or geriatrician to determine who much (and what kind of) assistance she needs to stay at home. Perhaps she can get by with meals on wheels and public transportation. Plus have someone prepare all her medications once a week. She may (or may not) qualify for home health. There may also be senior day care centers in your neighborhood that can help provide some supervision during the day as long as she is ok to stay by herself at night. Look around her locale - there are many options to help her age gracefully at home. Good luck!