Knowing When Enough is Enough

When I was a kid, I used to drink copious amounts of cola. I remember some afternoons I would finish off my allotted glass and then would be bummed at the fact that I was finished and couldn't get more. When I was younger I didn't really think about the fact that what makes cola what it is is a combination of many ingredients (most of which are not good for you in excess amounts) but that the key ingredient was water. Thinking myself to be quite clever then I added water to a remaining bit of cola in my glass one time and was amazed to find that it 'magically' appeared to increase! Wonderful! That is until I decided to taste it.

That was my first rather pedestrian lesson in some basic form of chemistry and it stuck with me. Unfortunately not everyone has such a mundane incident to help them realize the effects of substituting one ingredient for another. In fact in the case of 48 year-old Hang Mioku, she learned her lesson the hard way. As you can see in the picture included herein, Hang has undergone a radical change although it is self-inflicted and not for the reasons that you think. Apparently Hang underwent her first cosmetic surgery procedure at the ripe 'old' age of 28 and became instantly hooked. From then on Ms. Hang continued to undergo periodic cosmetic surgeries in order to maintain her looks.

Finally it came to the point where doctors refused to do surgeries on her anymore following the last where her appearance had changed so much that she no longer resembled the person her family knew. Her parents put her through counciling for her apparent addiction and although it was helpful for sometime, it didn't last and Hang eventually found a doctor who was willing to give her silicone injections which he administered. But not content to leave things to him, she willingly took the syringe he offered her to take home as well as a supply of silicone that she could use to inject herself at home. Things went fine until she ran out. Now here's the point in this tale that begins to crossover with my cola story and that's what to do when the actual product finishes off. Simple. Find what seems to be (though really isn't) a good substitute.

When her supply ran out, Hang turned to an alternative she found around the house. Cooking oil. The results can be seen in the picture above. Needless to say she wasn't too thrilled with the results and went on to Korean TV (a move which undoubtedly took a lot of guts considering how obviously concerned she was regarding her good looks) and told of her ordeal. Viewer donations poured in and she was able to have the surgeries required to return her to somewhat of the condition that she was in prior to the injection of cooking oil into her body. Doctors reported that nearly 60g of oil were removed from her face and 200g was removed from her neck. Although she has been left scarred and disfigured by the resulting 'ballooning' of her face, Hang realizes her mistake but is still hopeful that she can have another surgery to repair the new damage that she self-inflicted.