Madam Ng Siok Hong's diabetes was so bad that she was slowly becoming blind.
Blood vessels in the retina of her eyes were leaking. The only way to save her vision was to use a laser to burn off part of the retina - the layer in the back of the eye which transmits images to the brain - to cut its need for oxygen.
New blood vessels were growing to feed its oxygen needs, but they burst easily, flooding the eye with blood.
The procedure was slow and arduous but it had to be done.
In the first session in April this year, her ophthalmologist was able to burn 711 spots in her left eye, one at a time.
In the second and third sessions - done weeks apart to allow the eye to recover - she could tolerate only 377 and 534 burns. But her left eye needed more than 3,000 tiny burns for the treatment to be effective.
Luckily for her, Dr Jerry Tan bought a new machine, Pascal, last month that can do more than 50 evenly spaced burns each time.
The remaining 1,442 shots were done this month in one sitting, with far less pain. The 56-year-old housewife said in Cantonese: 'It was so fast. There was less of a burning sensation, though the doctor said he did more burns.'
Dr Tan, a private ophthalmologist, said the treatment costs patients the same - though the machine costs three times more than the old type - but saves them time and is less painful.
Madam Ng is no longer dreading having the procedure repeated on her right eye.
The Singapore National Eye Centre is testing a similar machine and is likely to get one.
Diabetic retinopathy is the primary cause of blindness in Singapore. It is caused by uncontrolled blood sugar that clogs up the tiny blood vessels in the eye, and reduces the supply of oxygen.
New vessels grow to supply the retina with the oxygen it needs, but these tend to be very fragile and burst easily, flooding the eye with blood and damaging it.
To save some of the patient's sight, part of the retina is destroyed so that it does not need so much oxygen. Usually, it is the outer part which is sacrificed, to preserve the central vision, so patients' peripheral and night visions may suffer.
Dr Nikolle Tan, an ophthalmologist at Tan Tock Seng Hospital, said: 'It's a destructive procedure to retard the progression of blindness in the long run.'
One in five diabetic patients has retinopathy, which could blind the sufferer within years. By the time the condition is discovered, half are at risk of losing their sight. Some will require surgery. The luckier ones would still be able to see shadows, movements and a dim perception of colours afterwards, but would be legally blind.
Only regular screening can detect retinopathy at its early, easily treatable stage, when there are no symptoms.
Unfortunately, patients tend to put responsibility entirely in their doctors' hands, said Dr Nikolle Tan.
A spokesman for the National Healthcare Group said 11 per cent of the diabetic patients treated at its nine polyclinics have retinopathy. The number would be higher at specialist clinics, which treat the more serious cases.
