Sending Tables?

I'm trying to send a table over rednet then have a variable changed to one of the table's values.
Here's my code:

--Sender Code
local rednetoutputs = { up = 0, down = 0, diffselected}
rednet.open("bottom")
--unrelated code
diff = io.read()
if diff == "5" then gDiff = 500
rednetoutputs.diffselected = "5"
rednet.send(26, textutils.serialize(rednetoutputs))
end
--Receiver Code
rednet.open("bottom")
os.pullEvent("rednet_message")
local id1, difftable, dist1 = rednet.receive()
textutils.unserialize(difftable)
diff = rednetoutputs[diffselected]
if diff == "5" then gDiff = 500

I'm working off of Casper's Pong as a code base.

rednetoutputs.diffselecteddiff = 5 
rednetoutputs[diffselected]
 

Maybe you just Forget rednetoutput. ?

remove 'os.pullEvent("rednet_message")'

And when you use textutils.unserialize, you're not giving it a variable, do this:

difftable = textutils.unserialize(difftable)

Not sure what you're trying to do here :?

Thanks, I'll try that out.