Cleta Sweeney is a Missourian at heart.
That’s true even after she moved to Louisiana. Cleta has always returned home for three things: Friends, natural beauty and great medical care.
Her mind was made up about the first two after living in the state for 40 years. And she first got a glimpse of that expert care in 2001, when she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer and treated at MU Health Care’s Ellis Fischel Cancer Center.
“I come home for family, friends and MU Health Care,” Cleta said. “That’s where I’m rooted in my health care. I'm glad I love it here, because I come back often.”
Cleta never imagined she’d be making routine visits back to Ellis Fischel more than 20 years later. But when her ophthalmologist told her about suspected melanoma on her right eye in 2024, she knew where to turn.
“I was told if I had this melanoma, it has a blood supply, which means it’s not treatable,” Cleta said. “I sat in the car and cried, then I called my sister, and she said, ‘You’re going to call Ellis Fischel for a second opinion, right?’ Once I had a game plan from MU Health Care, I was a lot calmer.”
Cleta was quickly connected with Frederick Fraunfelder, MD, a nationally recognized expert on eye surgery and eye cancer. He asked Cleta to come back to Columbia with her medical records and historical photos of her eye to talk about treatment.
“At MU Health Care, we have tremendous resources for patients, including some of the best doctors in the world that can treat eye disease and eye cancer,” Dr. Fraunfelder said. “People come to us at a crossroads in their lives, because it is scary to have something that can threaten your life and your sight. We were able to offer Cleta a choice in her treatment.”
Iris melanomas are very rare, with fewer than 3,000 cases per year on average in the United States. Thankfully, they are treatable, due in part to surgical and cryotherapy techniques developed at MU Health Care and the University of Missouri School of Medicine.
During Cleta’s first visit back at Ellis Fischel, Dr. Fraunfelder told her that she was finished with the observation stage of the growth on her eye.
“It is possible to have freckles on your eye, but looking at Cleta's eye with our ophthalmic microscope, there were signs this was more than a freckle,” Dr. Fraunfelder said. “It was very, very dark, it was elevating, and it was in the outside, or periphery, of her iris, what we call the angle between her iris and cornea. We know there is a blood supply there, and melanoma will spread if it reaches the blood stream.”
Cleta asked Dr. Fraunfelder to be direct when they spoke about her eye and her care.
“He explained everything in layman’s terms that I had suspected melanoma in my eye,” Cleta said. “I said, ‘What would you do if you were me?’ He said, ‘I’d cut it out.’ And two weeks later, I had surgery.”
Nurses and staff helped handle the process of scheduling Cleta’s surgery and getting insurance approval so that she could focus on healing. In the operating room, Dr. Fraunfelder used tiny surgical tools, including a pair of curved scissors, to cut the melanoma out of Cleta’s right iris.
“Together, we decided to use surgery to treat Cleta because although the suspected melanoma showed signs of growth, it was still small,” Dr. Fraunfelder. “We felt like we could remove this small tumor from her iris while preserving her vision.”
Cleta was awake during the surgery and needed only local anesthesia for the procedure, which took less than 45 minutes.
She returned to her new home in Louisiana with a few restrictions on activity and lifting weight until her eye could heal. The successful surgery removed a triangular section of her right iris, the shape of a slice of pie, that’s now a conversation starter.
“What stands out about MU Health Care to me is the personal touch,” Cleta said. “The participation and the care, as someone who has doctors in my family, is mind-blowing, from the residents and the nurses to a nurse navigator chasing down my records. People here cared to say, 25 years later, ‘We know this girl. She’s one of ours, we’re going to take care of her.’ When you have a caring team, your circle gets bigger, and I think that’s what makes MU Health Care a real jewel.”
These days, Cleta’s main concerns are making sure she has her flight scheduled to return to Columbia for follow-up visits, being an active presence around her family, friends and church community and taking extra steps to avoid ultraviolet light damage from sun exposure.
She’s looking forward to more time with family: Thanksgivings at the beach paddleboarding with dolphins, ski trips and fishing trips. Cleta can focus on enjoying her life and spending it with the people she loves, knowing she’s supported by her cancer team back in her other home.
“My mom is 95 and still walks and swims,” Cleta said. “I’m banking on that DNA. It is really encouraging to know that my lifestyle as Grammy and Mommy continues, the enjoyment I have with the family and outdoor continues, and I have backup with Dr. Fraunfelder and his team that sees the whole picture.”