Juvelook Lumps: The Risks of Steroids and a Patient's Wise Decision

A lady came to me with her entire face covered in lumps, and her cheeks were noticeably sunken.
Last year, she received Juvelook injections three times within four months, two vials each time, totaling six vials.
Starting late last year, lumps began to emerge one by one across her face. In her tear troughs, apple cheeks, pre-auricular areas, and nasolabial folds, each lump felt as large as a thumb upon touch, making her face visibly uneven and bumpy.
Earlier this year, she returned to her original clinic, where the doctor suggested injecting steroids into the lumpy areas.
However, a crucial incident occurred here.
The patient herself was aware that steroids could lead to tissue atrophy, so she asked the doctor, "Can we just inject the pre-auricular area first?" Although the doctor initially planned to inject her entire face, she insisted, and ultimately, only the pre-auricular area was injected.
The result was shocking: it would have been better not to inject at all. After the injection, the entire cheek area became severely sunken, with a noticeable hollow in the middle. Her skin became so thin that it felt like it was about to tear. Meanwhile, the lumps in the nearby areas that were not injected remained completely unchanged.
She expressed immense relief at having made that decision at the time, calling it a blessing in disguise.
She lamented that if her entire face had been injected with steroids then, today it might not be just a localized depression, but her entire face would have collapsed.

My treatment recommendations for her were:
Steroids must be stopped immediately. Their effect is still ongoing, and the extent of atrophy and hollowing has not yet reached its maximum. Continuing injections would only worsen the situation.
We will begin by extracting the lumps from her tear troughs and apple cheeks. Other areas of the cheeks will be evaluated once the situation stabilizes.
Many people are unaware that when steroids are used to treat "overfilled" lumps, the lumps themselves may not necessarily disappear. Instead, the surrounding normal fat and collagen will atrophy first. Moreover, this effect does not end immediately after injection; it continues to progress towards hollowing.
Her insistence on "just injecting the pre-auricular area first" might have truly saved her face.