Write-Output inside a PowerShell

I am getting very frustrated trying to write something out. Apparently my Write-Host or if I use Write-Output right after my Invoke-RestMethod is not working.

I am having no problems writing out the 'YYYYYYYYYYYYYYY' just before my rest call.

But the 'XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX' are skipped for some reason. If I debug I $messagesCount gets set with the amount of messages from, but seems like my function returns true regardless of the $messagesCount.

function IsQueueEmpty {
  param (
      [string]$url,
      [string]$user,
      [string]$pd
  )
  # Try to get queue details from RabbitMQ API
  try {
      Write-Host "Queue has YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY messages remaining."
      # Make the API call to get queue information
      $response = Invoke-RestMethod -Uri $url -Credential (New-Object PSCredential ($user, (ConvertTo-SecureString $pd -AsPlainText -Force)))
      
      # Get the number of messages in the queue
      $messagesCount = $response.messages

      # Write out the remaining number of messages in the queue
      Write-Host "Queue has XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX messages remaining." # NOT WORKING

      # Return true if the queue is empty, false otherwise
      return ($messagesCount -eq 0)  # Returns true if queue is empty
  } catch {
      Write-Output "An error occurred: $_"
      return $false
  }
}

This is my function, where I am trying to write out the count of messages from my rest call. Debugging return the correct amount of messages (26), but I cannot write it out and my return ($messagesCount -eq 0) returns true all the time.

function IsQueueEmpty {
  param (
      [string]$url,
      [string]$user,
      [string]$pd
  )
  # Try to get queue details from RabbitMQ API
  try {
      # Make the API call to get queue information
      $response = Invoke-RestMethod -Uri $url -Credential (New-Object PSCredential ($user, (ConvertTo-SecureString $pd -AsPlainText -Force)))

      # Get the number of messages in the queue
      $messagesCount = $response.messages

      # Write out the remaining number of messages in the queue
      Write-Host "Queue has $messagesCount messages remaining."

      # Return true if the queue is empty, false otherwise
      return ($messagesCount -eq 0)  # Returns true if queue is empty
  } catch {
      Write-Output "An error occurred: $_"
      return $false
  }
}

If I comment out the Write-Host and I use return ($response.messages -eq 0), then my function works fine.

Can someone explain why I am having problems within my PowerShell function?

I additionally tried casting to int:

$messagesCount = [int]$response.messages
Write-Host "Queue has $messagesCount messages remaining."

but it did not help either