Really odd behavior with notecard (now LSL sees it, now it doesn't!)

I have a script that first checks for the existence of a notecard...

if (llGetInventoryType (paySplitCard) != INVENTORY_NONE)
            {
                
                bmDebugMsg ("The " + paySplitCard + " notecard exists, checking for data");
                
                // transfer control to the getPaySplitCount state //
                state getPaySplitCount;
                
            }

This code works fine and sends the script to the getPaySplitCount state...

 state getPaySplitCount
{
    
   state_entry ()
    {
        
        bmDebugMsg ("Entering state getPaySplitCount");
        
        bmStatusMsg ("Retrieving number of notification recipients");
        
        bmDebugMsg ("paySplitCard = " + paySplitCard);
        
        // get the number of lines in the itemListCard notecard//
        llGetNumberOfNotecardLines (paySplitCard);
        
    }

}

The problem I am having is that while the debug message DOES display the proper output (paySplitCard = paySplit) in the Communicate window, I then immediately get an error stating: "Couldn't find notecard paySplit". (paySplitCard is a global.)

Any ideas what's causing this?

In the wiki of all things:

If the notecard is empty, the dataserver will shout on the DEBUG_CHANNEL that the notecard does not exist. This is because until a notecard is saved for the first time, it does not exist as an asset only as an inventory placeholder (llGetInventoryKey will return NULL_KEY).

I had just thrown a blank notecard in. When I hit enter, then backspace, then saved it, it worked fine!