Using a boolean for conditional updates, why isn't this working?

I've got a bit of an issue and I can't figure it out. I'm doing some updates on a grid and due to the way the update works from the RadGrid I'm trying to implement the following.

I've declared a boolean Dim bRelCode As Boolean and I've got  a selectedindexchanged event firing on a dropdown as follows:

    Public Sub dropDownList1_SelectedIndexChanged(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)
        'Load the label using the selected value of first dropdownlist.

        'first reference the edited grid item through the NamingContainer attribute
        Dim editedItem As GridEditableItem = CType(CType(sender, DropDownList).NamingContainer, GridEditableItem)

        Dim lblRelCode As Label = CType(editedItem("TemplateColumnRelCode").FindControl("RelCode"), Label)

        Dim table As DataTable = DataSourceHelperLK.GetDataTable(("SELECT code_ID FROM contrid WHERE ci_title = '" _
        + CType(editedItem("TemplateColumnRelCodeDesc").FindControl("DropDownList1"), DropDownList).SelectedItem.Text + "'"))

        'Dim lstRelCode As DataList = CType(editedItem("TemplateColumnRelCode").FindControl("lstRelCode"), DataList)
        Dim grid As GridView = CType(editedItem("TemplateColumnRelCode").FindControl("gridview1"), GridView)
        Dim lbl As Label = CType(editedItem("TemplateColumnRelCode").FindControl("RelCode"), Label)

        grid.DataSource = table
        grid.DataBind()
        lbl.Visible = False
        bRelCode = True

    End Sub

Now that sets my boolean to true and everything is fine at this point, but when I go to do the update portion it seems my boolean is losing the value assigned to it in the dropdown changed event. And when I get to this bit of code in the update sub;

            If bRelCode = True Then
                grid = TryCast(eeditedItem.FindControl("Gridview1"), GridView)
                lblRelCode = CType(grid.Rows(Convert.ToInt32(0)).Cells(0).FindControl("lblRelCode"), Label)
            Else
                lblRelCode = CType(eeditedItem.FindControl("RelCode"), Label)
            End If

My bRelCode = false and the wrong piece of that if..then is firing.

Ideas?