Patient Stories
Back to Favorite Activities After Hamstring Repair
Date posted: 5/7/2025
Last updated: 5/7/2025
Cindy Milojevic, 70, of River Forest, IL, grew up spending summers in beautiful Lake Geneva, WI, just a short drive from her home. There, where her family owned a motorboat, she learned to waterski at the age of five. Eventually, she mastered it, and at age nine, began slalom waterskiing (with just one ski) exclusively.
“Regular waterskiing is kind of like driving a go-cart instead of a car when you compare it to slalom-style,” Milojevic explains. “It just became kind of boring.”
As life went on, Milojevic enjoyed taking her children and grandchildren to Lake Geneva and she continued slalom-style waterskiing and teaching the next generations how to do it. In addition, as a self-proclaimed ‘super active’ person, over the years she added yoga, pickleball, hiking, snow skiing, and other sports to her exercise repertoire. She enjoyed waterskiing several times a week during the summer months.
Something felt wrong
Until one day last summer, when she felt something was very wrong as she was centering her ski in the water and preparing to pull herself to a standing position behind the boat.
“I felt a snap in the back of my leg and just a weird feeling throughout my body,” she says. “I wasn’t in a lot of pain, but was shaking all over. I knew something bad had happened.”
Right away, after her family helped her out of the water, she reached out to a physician assistant friend at Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush and asked for the best doctor at the top-ranked practice. Immediately, she learned about Dr. Shane Nho, a sports medicine surgeon with expertise in hamstring injuries.
Getting care the same day
“I couldn’t believe it, but by 2 pm that same day, I was in Dr. Nho’s clinic in Chicago,” she explains. “And it was a good thing because by that time, I couldn’t move my leg and just really wanted to be able to walk again.”
After a careful exam and reviewing imaging, Dr. Nho confirmed that Milojevic had sustained a complete tear of all three tendons in her hamstring. One of the tendons had already retracted. Together, Milojevic and Dr. Nho agreed that surgery was the best option to get her back to fully enjoying her favorite activities, most likely including waterskiing.
“Cindy was very motivated to returned to her active lifestyle,” says Dr. Nho. “A torn hamstring makes it difficult to return to sports that require strength and agility, so the recommendation to surgically repair her hamstring was a no-brainer.'”
Milojevic underwent a very successful outpatient surgery at the Rush Oak Brook Outpatient Center meaning that she went home the same day of surgery. She followed Dr. Nho’s recovery guidelines to the letter and gradually performed physical therapy near her home at the Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush Oak Park physical therapy clinic.
An amazing experience
“Everyone, including Dr. Nho, his team, and the physical therapists, were compassionate and professional,” she says. “The whole experience was amazing.”
Just six months post-surgery, Milojevic and her husband traveled to New Zealand where she happily completed a seven-hour, 12-mile hike in one day. This fall, she is planning another intense hiking trip to the Swiss Alps with a friend. She is also back to yoga and pickleball but admits that she may refrain from waterskiing this summer. “I think for now I will just enjoy teaching the kids how to ski and drive the boat,” she laughs. “Maybe one day.”
