Newbie actionscript question

I am checking the value of a variable I have just loaded from a php file.
I copy this value to a dynamic text box named checkLog (just for debugging purposes).
The value of checkLog is indeed 1, but the condition
if(this.checkLog == 1)
fails.

I used sendAndLoad to get the value of checkLog from the php file.

Any ideas?
Am I doing an incorrect comparison?