.post then .load - not loading anything

.post then .load - not loading anything

So, I have this PHP
if(!empty($_POST) || $catSortID != "") {
   $catSortID = $_POST['catSortID'];
   $catSortItem = " WHERE category_id = " . $catSortID;
} else {
   $catSortItem = "";
}

$catList = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM adminCategory ORDER BY CategoryName");

$catLinks = array();
while ($catlistRow = mysql_fetch_array($catList)) {
   $catLinks[] = '<a href="javascript:;" class="sortCat" id="sortCat_'.$catlistRow['id'].'" onclick="sortItemCat('.$catlistRow['id'].')">'. $catlistRow['CategoryName'] .'</a>';
}

echo "<p id=\"catSortList\">" . implode(' | ', $catLinks) . "</p>\n\n";



$result = mysql_query('SELECT * FROM adminItems'.$catSortItem.' ORDER BY id');
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
   $textmsg = $line = str_replace("|", "</li><li>", $row['textmsg']);
   $catID = $row['category_id'];
   $catsql = "SELECT * FROM adminCategory WHERE id = " . $catID;
   $catName = mysql_query($catsql);
   while ($catRow = mysql_fetch_array($catName)) {
      print '<div id="Item_' . $row['id'] . '" class="itemListBox">
               <img src="../content/img/items/imgresize.php?src=../content/'.$row['image_url'].'&w=100" alt="'.$row['name'].'" title="'.$row['name'].'" class="itemListImg" />
               <div><h3 class="itemTitle">' . $catRow['CategoryName'] . ' &raquo; '.$row['name'].'</h3>
               <p class="itemDesc"><strong>Description: </strong>'.$row['description'].'</p>
               <p class="itemMsg"><strong>Text Message(s): </strong></p>
               <ol class="itemMsgList"><li>'.$textmsg."</li></ol></div>
            </div>\n\n";
   }
}


It shows a list of all the categories as well as a list of all the items. Each item is associated with a certain category via the category_id.
The list of categories are all anchors and should be clickable to reload the items with only the selected category.
Problem is, after the .post with the category id it is not reloading with just the correct items, it is not loading at all, not that I can see at least.

here is the jQuery function I built to handle this
function sortItemCat(id) {
   var catList = $("#sortCat_"+id).text();
   $.post('lib/loadItem.php', { catSortID: id }, function(data) {
      if(data != 'false'){   
         $("#itemList").load("lib/loadItem.php");
      }else{alert(data+" -- "+id+" -- "+catList);}
   });
}


The var catList and the else alert are only there for testing purposes and will be removed in the final code.

Any help would be appreciated