Property getting set then reset in init - ios

Question

Here's the property declaration in my SlidingVC header, a subclass of UITableViewController:
#property (strong, nonatomic) NSString *user;
Here's my synthesize line:
#synthesize user = _user,sortedWordlist = _sortedWordlist, wordlist = _wordlist;
Here's my custom init:
- (id)initWithUser:(NSString*)theUser
{
self = [super init];
if (self) {
if ([theUser isEqualToString:#"user"]) {
_user = #"user";
}
else if ([theUser isEqualToString:#"opponent"]){
_user = #"opponent";
}
}
return self;
}
So what's happening is that as I step pver initWithUser:, I see that _user takes on the memory address of theUser in the variable debugger window. I step over return self and then to the closing } of the method and it's still set. However, Xcode returns to return self one more time and then if I step over that _user doesn't have a memory address next to it anymore, and it remains null for the methods that follow.
Why is it returning twice and then setting to null the second time?
Here's the method in my MainVC that instantiates the SlidingVC:
- (WSWordlistTableViewController *)setupWordlistTableViewController:(NSString*)user
{
WSWordlistTableViewController *wordlistTableViewController;
UIView *wordlistContainerView;
UIStoryboard *mainStoryboard = [UIStoryboard storyboardWithName:#"MainStoryboard"
bundle: nil];
if ([user isEqualToString:#"user"]){
if(!self.userWordlistTableViewController){
self.userWordlistTableViewController = [[WSWordlistTableViewController alloc] initWithUser:#"user"];
wordlistTableViewController = self.userWordlistTableViewController;
wordlistContainerView = self.userWordlistContainerView;
}
}
else if ([user isEqualToString:#"opponent"]) {
if(!self.opponentWordlistTableViewController){
self.opponentWordlistTableViewController = [[WSWordlistTableViewController alloc] initWithUser:#"opponent"];
wordlistTableViewController = self.opponentWordlistTableViewController;
wordlistContainerView = self.opponentWordlistContainerView;
}
}
wordlistTableViewController = [mainStoryboard instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier:#"wordlistTableViewController"];
wordlistTableViewController.view.frame = wordlistContainerView.bounds;
wordlistTableViewController.view.autoresizingMask = wordlistContainerView.autoresizingMask;
[self addChildViewController:wordlistTableViewController];
[wordlistContainerView addSubview:wordlistTableViewController.view];
[wordlistContainerView bringSubviewToFront:wordlistTableViewController.wordlistTableView];
[wordlistTableViewController didMoveToParentViewController:self];
return wordlistTableViewController;
}
And the method that calls that, depending on which button is pressed:
- (IBAction)slideUserWordlistView:(id)sender {
if(!self.userWordlistTableViewController){
[self setupWordlistTableViewController:#"user"];
}
// (sliding drawer code here)
}
Or:
- (IBAction)slideOpponentWordlistView:(id)sender {
if(!self.opponentWordlistTableViewController){
[self setupWordlistTableViewController:#"opponent"];
}
// (sliding drawer code here)
}
What I'm doing is sliding out a view that contains my SlidingVC. I have two of them, one for each of two users. When each respective button is pressed I check if each respective SlidingVC exists, if not, instantiate then add to the the slidingViewContainer.