[jQuery] Simple problem with createElement

[Code Daemon]

I am creating an element with createElement and then appending it to a
table and then after a few seconds, deleting it with a call to empty
(). This works fine

The problem seems to be that every time I create the element, I am
creating it with the same id and after a few iterations, it fails. It
will append the element to the table, but will not fadeout or delete
the element properly.

                                var obj = document.createElement('span');
                                $(obj).attr("id", "fieldstatus")
                                        .addClass("fieldstatus")
                                        .html("sending . . .")
                                        .appendTo( $(this).parent() );

                                $.post('main/submit', {date: 
$("#caldate").val(), fieldname: $
(this).attr("id"), value: $(this).val() },
                                        function(json){
                                                
$("#fieldstatus").html(json.status);
                                                setTimeout(function(){
                                                                
$("#fieldstatus").fadeOut(2000, function(){
                                                                                
                        $("#fieldstatus").empty();
                                                                                
                        });
                                                        },
                                                1000);
                                        },
                                        "json"
                                );