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Steamboat Springs — About a week after welcoming a new grandchild, Cindy LaDue received some frightening family news.

One of her daughters, Airman 1st Class Rebekah LaDue, was flown early last week from Joint Base Balad in Iraq to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. Three weeks of serious migraines had worried Air Force officials, who feared a tumor and sent her to the hospital for tests.

A week later, the relieved mother heard good news.

"Yesterday they shipped her back to Iraq because it's stress, it's just totally overload stress," Cindy LaDue said Wednesday. "There's no tumors. Every test came back negative."

LaDue, of Hayden, said her daughter would spend a couple of weeks in Iraq on light duty before returning to Honolulu, where she is based. She's expected to come back to the Yampa Valley in February.

"She had to spend Christmas alone," LaDue said. Rebekah LaDue thought she might be able to leave the hospital that day, but authorities changed their minds, Cindy LaDue said.

Then, her daughter got an unexpected treat.

"Some of the cast members of 'CSI' and 'Grey's Anatomy' showed up," Cindy LaDue said. "It was pretty devastating to be there all alone on Christmas Day. : But then they showed up, and that was very cool."

When she makes her way back, Rebekah LaDue will meet a new nephew. Her sister and brother-in-law, Sarah and Ben Chaney, also live in Hayden. Ryle Chaney was born Dec. 12. The Chaneys have another son, Lincoln, 16 months, and a daughter, Jaylah, who is 2.

The baby's birth led to a hint that something was wrong.

"I didn't hear from her for four or five days when Sarah had the baby," Cindy LaDue said. "We were trying to get a hold of her. : Come to find out she'd been sick; she'd had these migraines. She couldn't call. We didn't know what was going on."

Rebekah LaDue was in the news in November after her squadron flew an American flag across Iraq to give to Tyler Johnson, a Steamboat Springs boy who lost his feet and parts of his fingers to an illness.

Her daughter's Iraq work is challenging, Cindy LaDue said, and she's done it well. Rebekah LaDue is scheduled for an early promotion in February or March instead of October, Cindy LaDue said.

But, "even good things are stressful," Cindy LaDue said.

Sarah Chaney said she cried for her sister, adding that Rebekah LaDue had been upset because she had made arrangements to celebrate Christmas on the base and couldn't be there.

Still, Chaney said, the family was glad she underwent the proper testing.

"We were grateful for the opportunity she received to see specialists, and maybe that wouldn't have happened had she been not in the military," Chaney said. "So, we're grateful to the military for taking her seriously and making sure she got good care, and that's what we consoled ourselves with."

Chaney said she was upset that her sister was without family for the holiday. But the family plans to make it up to her.

"We're doing Christmas in February now," Chaney said. "We'll see how long my tree lasts. After that, I'll put up a fake."