mySQLi prepared statement unable to get_result()

I am totally confused by mySQLi. Although I have been using procedural mysql calls for years, I want to get used to making prepared statements for the db security/mySQL injection protection it offers. I am trying to write a simple select statement (yes I know making a procedural call for this offers performance enhancement). When run, I get all the echoes until I hit the $result = $stmt->get_result(); component. It all seems fairly straightforward to me, but I am at a loss after hours of reading manuals on mySQLi. Any ideas why this would be failing?

*note: this is a test environment and while no sanitizing/escaping of characters is taking place, I am only passing valid content into the variables $username and $email. And also, I have looked all over SO to find the solution to my issue.

function checkUsernameEmailAvailability($username, $email) {
    //Instantiate mysqli connection
    @$mysqli = new mysqli(C_HOST,C_USER,C_PASS,C_BASE) or die("Failed to connect to MySQL database...");
    if (!$mysqli)
    {
        echo 'Error: Could not connect to database.  Please try again later...';
        exit;
    } else {
        echo 'mysqli created';
    }

    /* Create a prepared statement */   
    if($stmt = $mysqli -> prepare("SELECT username,email FROM tb_users WHERE username=? OR email=?")) {
        echo '<br />MYSQLi: ';

        /* Bind parameters s - string, b - boolean, i - int, etc */
        $stmt -> bind_param("ss", $username, $email);
        echo '<br />paramsBound...';

        /* Execute it */
        $stmt -> execute();     
        echo '<br />Executed';

        $result = $stmt->get_result();
        echo '<br />Result acquired';

        /* now you can fetch the results into an array - NICE */
        $myrow = $result->fetch_assoc();
        echo '<br />Fetched';


        /* Close statement */
        /$stmt -> close();
        echo '<br />Done m