CENTER OF ANTHROPOMETRIC
(ORTHOPEDIC) COSMETOLOGY AND CORRECTION

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My Toulon, or Lifetime Adventure.


1988. Business trip. Evening in Moscow. I am sitting on the sofa close to a most pretty girl. She is 22, just graduated from colledge. I am a 38-year-old engineer. A "trip" love affair is at its height. Her face expresses admiration mixed with curiosity, she is stroking me with her hands in tender haste, encouraging to continue my speech... And I pontificate:" ...At school you learned little about Napoleon, he was such a rare personality, you know, who managed to tame the destiny...A role model for ambitious men of the world...He began at his 24, when he fought as a junior officer of artillery of the French Republic. There is a seaport - Toulon in France. At that time it was taken over by rebellious royalists supported by the Englishmen, and there was no chance to get them out of there. And Napoleon presented his plan of seizing the city by one attack to the commanders, and they had no choice but agree, but on condition that he would be in charge of everything himself, and if it did not work, he would be taken to tribunal and shot. Nevertheless, he managed that, and at once a lieutenant was appointed a general and was brought to Paris... There he proceeded with his career, became an emperor of France. So am I, I have an idea. I've been promoting it for two years... It only needs to be tested. If an experiment works well - Toulon is taken over... My Toulon".
I didn't tell her then - what the idea was. In fact, there was no need to talk about that. We were seeing each other for one and a half week, and I'd already impressed her more than enough. Not for nothing were we sitting in her apartment while her parents were away for the weekend in their country house. I was simply bursting with a joyful hope and I had to splash out a bit, it seemed that the goal is already within reach! Oh, how wrong I was then, and later again and again... for four years. The idea came to my mind two years ago, when a "School of Growth" from Moscow became widely known all over Russia. A doctor was offering to all who wishes a method, according to which, if one kept a special diet and did exercises similar to yoga for a year or two, at any age he would be able to augment one's height unlimitedly (!). Again, while my business trip to Moscow, I dropped in this "School" to satisfy my curiosity, and found there a huge line of people from all over Russia aged from 14 to 60 (!). I must admit that 170 cm (5.6 feet) of my body did not suit me, that is why I took an active part in talks of people in the line. We ardently discussed all rumors, cases and myths concerning the subject, rushed with questions to those who were coming out the "School", having done another set of a wonder-gymnastics... A year later the "School of Growth" went bankrupt and disappeared, no miracle happened. But the thought about lots of people who wish to grow up settled firmly in my mind... It's just a world market!!
Later I found plenty of new information. Several times, while reading newspapers and magazines, my eye caught articles devoted to innovation research of orthopedic surgeons, and here and there I ran across reports about lower extremity stretching performed on the people who often did not have any trauma. That sparked my interest, and I addressed local, volgogradian orthopedists ... The information they gave me was a surprise, as it turned out, such operations were being performed for a long time on persons of restricted growth and on those whose one leg is shorter than the other from birth, there existed routine practices. The risk of postoperative complications was vain, and there was no official interdiction to perform such operations on common people for cosmetic purpose! Right away I suggested performing such an operation on me. And then the doctors told me a story, that at the end of the 60-s the great Dr. Ilizarov ( a Russian orthopedist, who discovered that if separated by a special device, the fragments of broken bones of arms or legs would grow together forming a new bone, for that purpose he invented a special device. Before that broken bones were only shifted together for the coalescence, though in case of compound fractures it lead to the shortening of arms or legs) quite successfully augmented the height of some student and nearly got to prison for 10 years charged with experimenting on a healthy person. That fact inspired me, and I stared to press for permission to repeat Dr. Ilizarov's experiment on me. In ministries and departments I was treated politely and faced no refuse, they spoke to me with interest, but gave no permission: "As there is no interdiction, address to doctors, not to us"... I started seeing to doctors, frequent business trips across Russia assisted that, I visited all orthopedists everywhere... But doctors had their own answer: "...We don't mind, but an official permission is necessary". I was shuttling from doctors to officials and back, that had become my hobby... however, there were encouraging moments as well. In 1989, in Zaporogje, I presented my idea to Dr. Devjatov, Anotaliy Andreevich, who was the head of orthopedic department there and a follower of Dr. Ilizarov. Dr. Devjatov told me to come back in autumn to undergo an operation. I called in September and was shocked - Dr, Devjatov died from heart attack in Leningrad, on his way back from Finland. Let him rest in peace, he was real man. In distraught I started to work with public. I began to address students in Volgograd, they signed a petition petition to make our deputy go to the Health Minister and get the permission. The deputy handed in a sackful of signed petition during the parliamentary session, but the Minister gave no answer. It was such an experience for me that in 1990 I ran the election, left behind 5 other candidates and became a deputy of the city Council. In autumn of 1991 it seemed that luck smiled me again, I made an arrangement for an operation in Moscow with a famous orthopedist from CITO (Central Institution of Traumatology and Orthopaedy), the idea appealed to him greatly. We arranged everything , I came at he fixed time and was hospitalized to CITO, spend a week there waiting, and then the doctor appeared dreary, bidding excuses, as the academic council of CITO had refused the permission to operate. That was the moment when I was stuck by a tough depression. I left CITO, and found nothing better that to call that old Moscow girlfriend: "...I'm not a Napoleon; I'm a piece of shit..." Later in the hotel I got drunk dead, and went home in the morning. I though that was the end, I'm 40 - too late for dreams. But probably God loves dreamer! In March 1992 my friend, a businessman suggested me talking to a orthopedist from Volgograd, who offered to sell the results of his research. So went to see him, he was a Master of Science, and told him: "Who will by you research? There are such inventors in almost in every clinic with no chance to apply their own ideas, I saw that with my own eyes...". I said so, and then told him about my idea. And he - proposed to put it into practice! Three days later he performed an operation, only wrote some obscure diagnosis to prevent the higher-ups from interfering. I awoke after the operation, the device was on my leg, the general condition was, naturally, just as after anaesthesia, but my heart was singing. I wish everyone to experience such a condition at least once a life. That was happiness in pure form! Further - about a year spent in hospital. There was all, I mean, sweat, blood and tears, but when one's soul was soaring, all the rest is just a trifle. In March 1993 I left the hospital, having stretched my legs by 6 cm (2.36 in). By that time, there had already appeared some reports in the local mass media, so that when I came to the meeting of the City Council, where I was not present for a year, I sparked a furore, all the staff, almost 200 people. Crowded around, ones asking questions, others measuring height with me. That was the first time when I felt like Napoleon after Toulon. After that, for about four moths I learned to walk on the "new" legs. Muscles were adjusting to the new bones, and I was working out my balance, as the centre of gravity had shifted, at times I was turning jerkily and was falling, especially on stairs. That is why the gait of teenagers, who are growing fast, is wobbling and uncertain. Meanwhile, my doctor informed me that the same technology was suited for healthy persons, for curved legs straightening and that it was very easy and took only 2 months. So it was time to work - to find sponsors and to open the public eye on for new opportunities. I left the factory, in 1993 the City Council was dismissed, for a whole year I was in search for a suitable job; sometimes I had no money even to buy food. They it all sorted out somehow, my legs returned to a normal condition, a friend gave me a job in his company; I started to earn some money. And an idea sparked again. I had augmented the height, what about rejuvenation? I had read a book by PhD. Nikolaev, in which he told that his patients, persons with bad health, while treated by starvation diet, incidentally experienced sudden rejuvenation of the organism. I connected the PhD. Nikolaev, we arranged my visit to his clinic in Moscow for an experiment. So I came and was starving safely at Nikolaev's for 18 days, lost 12 kg (26.46 pounds).
When I left the clinic, I got to physical training, and restored everything I was able to perform on both horizontal and parallel bars while in the Army, then began to do push-ups on fists, so that in four months l was able to perform 120 push-ups at a fast pace. The standard for US Army officer of special troops is 50 push-ups of that kind for "Excellent".
Several times, in the evening, I dropped in discos, and the young took me for a person of the same age, saying that I looked not more than 26, and I was 44 years old at that time. In 1996, France Press agency contacted me for an interview as I was the first healthy person in the world, who had surgically augmented his height in mature age with a cosmetic purpose, afterwards, this report was published by many well-known western periodicals, the references are available here , besides, now I'm constantly appear on all the russian TV channels in talk-shows, what is more, two documentaries about me were shot. My doctor is now showered by invitations to share his experience in foreign orthopedic centers, he has visited the US, Sweden, Lithuania, Germany, and his method is now known all over the world as Russian cosmetology. I also proceeded with my career, upheld the first in the world thesis on "anthropometric cosmetology", took out more than 40 patents for inventions. And I was marked in the Russian book of records "Divo", as the first person in the world augmented his height with a cosmetic purpose, and when I got acquainted with the representatives of the Guinness Book, they even got angry because I had not addressed them in time to state the record, but it was impossible at that time as my doctor and I started the experiment secretly.
If there are any questions for me, please send them on the address michail@rucosm.com

P.S. In December 2004 my doctor – 52 year-old Michael Yegorov, suddenly died from cancer. Nevertheless, what is left is the Center of Anthropometric Cosmetology that he created, his team of surgeons, his talented followers.

Michael Goldreyer
Volgograd, Russia,
www.rucosm.com