[jQuery] Simple problem with createElement

[jQuery] Simple problem with createElement


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"
                );