Thumbnail in Left Sidebar

I would like to place the thumbnail picture in the left sidebar of my theme.

I have a 3-column theme, with split sidebars…left & right sidebars. The following is the thumnail code in my theme:

functions.php:
<?php if ( function_exists("add_theme_support") ) { add_theme_support("post-thumbnails"); } ?>

Code I’m using to display the pic:
<?php the_post_thumbnail(array( 180,225 )); ?>

The code works fine if placed in my right sidebar, however, if placed in my left sidebar, nothing is displayed. I know the left sidebar code is executed before the post code in my theme, but I thought it would still pick it up, apparently not.

Any recommendations?

-Scott