$wpdb how can i save my postmeta table before querying it

This function is in my functions.php file. The query returns the value I’m looking for via phpmyadmin, but only AFTER the function has been run in WordPress.

add_action( 'transition_post_status', 'a_new_post', 10, 3 );
function a_new_post( $new_status, $old_status, $post ) {
if ( 'publish' !== $new_status or 'publish' === $old_status )
    return;
if ( 'post' == $post->jobman_job )
    return; // as far as here, I'm just checking conditions and they're working fine.

global $wpdb;
$current_post_id = $post->ID; // this is fine... variable is getting set with the post id.
$table_name = $wpdb->prefix . 'postmeta'; // fine...
$result = $wpdb->get_var("SELECT meta_value FROM " . $table_name . " WHERE meta_key =      'data19' AND post_id =  " .$current_post_id. " ORDER BY post_id DESC");

print_r($wpdb->last_query ); // After this function has run, when I put the last query into phpmyadmin, I get my result just fine.
var_dump ($result); // I'm getting NULL when I run the query in WordPress.
}

It seems that at the point in time when I run the function, the new meta_value I’m wanting to retrieve hasn’t been saved into the postmeta table yet.

Is there anyway to delay my query from running until the new meta_value is present? or maybe save the post_meta table before I run the query? this is killing me slowly. Any help would be great!