It doesn't matter anymore that a 5-year-old Bismarck boy's brain tumor is inoperable and is the cause of a Mayo Clinic doctor telling his parents the worst possible news.

It doesn't matter because there is no tumor, anymore.

David Sickler's tumor has disappeared, entirely, according to April 2's MRI test results of a boy whose family only weeks ago heard that he had a life expectancy of six months to a year.

Lora Baker, David's mom, said Monday that her son went in for an MRI on April 2 and the same day received a telephone call from David's doctor who reported that David had a normal MRI.

The mass had vanished.

"This is the best thing that ever happened to us, the best news," she said. "You can't compare it to anything. No comparison."

"I'm happy for the family," said Dr. Baruti Serabe, Sickler's oncologist.

But she remains cautious. Just because the tumor is gone doesn't mean there aren't cancer cells remaining in David's body that could regroup and show up on David's next MRI, she said.

"We have to do another MR in two or three months to see if the tumor continues to be gone," she said.

David finished six weeks of radiation March 11, which was to, at most, shrink the tumor to perhaps give him a little more time and alleviate some symptoms, Baker said. Nurses started calling him "Dave the Brave" during radiation treatments.

To have radiation accomplish this "is not something we normally see with this type of tumor," Serabe said. But, "It's possible, yes. That's what radiation is supposed to do."

Being cancer-free for five years is still used as a benchmark and David is far from that, yet.

"This is way, way too early," Serabe said.

Mayo Clinic personnel are studying the MRI results now and will determine the next steps. In the meantime, Serabe is slowly weaning David off of the steroids being used to help decrease pressure on his brain.

Baker remembers Serabe's phone call reporting the news on April 2.

Baker answered and heard Medcenter One's Serabe say in a professional matter-of-fact tone say, "We've got the results of the MRI. The results came back normal."

"What do you mean, normal?"

"… There is no mass, no swelling, no infilitration."

"Nothing?"

"Nothing … On the report it states that there is no sign of a mass. It's a normal reading."

"Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God," Baker remembers saying over and over. And there were instant tears of joy, she said.

"She had never seen something like this before," Baker related.

But Baker said they also were told to be "cautiously optimist."

The family has been told cancer is sneaky.

"David is not out of the woods, but boy we're taking today for what it is - an absolute miracle," Baker said.

The cancer saga started earlier this year when David, a Lewis and Clark Elementary School kindergartner, was taken to the doctor in January. There seemed to be something wrong with his right eye. It wandered, floated out to the right. An ophthalmologist and then a neurologist thought it might be a lazy eye muscle but an MRI test showed otherwise.

The next day, David was whisked to Rochester, Minn.'s Mayo Clinic where Baker was told the tumor was malignant and David was terminal.

But that was then.

This week, Mayo Clinic asked that the April 2 MRI results be sent and Baker's assumption Thursday was Mayo had them and was analyzing them. Her understanding is that Mayo may want David to come back there for a re-consultation. But beyond that, Baker doesn't have any information about what the next steps will be for her son.

But she knows what this whole saga has done for her.

"What this journey with David has done … It has totally solidified what's important - your children, your love for your children," she said. "It totally makes nothing else matter. It teaches you to never take them for granted."

David knew all along that he had good cells and bad cells and his good cells had to fight hard to defeat the bad cells. But that's all he was told about his situation. Until April 2.

She remembers how her conversation went with David after she got off the phone with Serabe and started to explain to him why she was crying.

"Mommy is crying because she is so happy," she told him.

"You don't cry when you're happy," he said.

"Yes, mommies cry when they're happy."

She then explained that his good cells had won.

"No bad cells?" He asked.

"Not one," she said.

"It's a happy day, mom?"

"It's the biggest Happy Day," she said.

And for a couple days, he kept asking, "Is it still Happy Day?"

Baker said countless people have been praying for David - in this community and in prayer chains across the country and even overseas.

"I think David has been truly blessed," she said.

She said the support from the community has been overwhelming and she's so thankful.

And the number of times she has said "Thank you, God," since that phone call?

"I can't count," she said. "The highest number (there is) … It's way beyond that."

(Reach reporter Virginia Grantier at 250-8254 or at vgrantier@ndonline.com.)