Problems with flutters on status widget after API call

I am having sync issues, I am fetching data from the API, then creating a list from JSON. I think, use the length of the resulting list as the number of items in my watchlist. However, it throws a zero error on the item number and then exits and presents a list scan. I am trying to figure out where the sync issue is and how items and widgets are handled to avoid the error. My code is below in case anyone has any ideas where my code is faulty.

class Specialty extends StatefulWidget {
  Specialty({Key key, this.title}) : super(key: key);

  final String title;

  @override
  _SpecialtyState createState() => new _SpecialtyState();
}

class _SpecialtyState extends State<Specialty> {

  bool _dataReceived = false;
  bool _authenticated = false;
  SharedPreferences prefs;
  List mylist;


  @override
  void initState() {
    super.initState();

    _getPrefs();
    _getSpecialty();
  }


  _getPrefs() async {
    prefs = await SharedPreferences.getInstance();
    _authenticated = prefs.getBool('authenticated');
    print('AUTH2: ' + _authenticated.toString());
    print('AUTHCODE2: ' + prefs.getString('authcode'));

  }

  _getSpecialty() async {
    var _url = 'http://$baseurl:8080/support/specialty';

    var http = createHttpClient();
    var response = await http.get(_url);

    var specialties = jsonCodec.decode(response.body);

    mylist = specialties.toList();
    //_dataReceived = true;


    setState(() {
      _dataReceived = true;
    });
  }

  Future<Null> _onRefresh() {
    Completer<Null> completer = new Completer<Null>();
    Timer timer = new Timer(new Duration(seconds: 3), () {
      completer.complete();
    });
    return completer.future;
  }

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return new Scaffold(
        body: new RefreshIndicator(
          child: new ListView.builder(
            itemBuilder: _itemBuilder,
            itemCount: mylist.length,
          ),
          onRefresh: _onRefresh,

        ));
  }

  Widget _itemBuilder(BuildContext context, int index) {
    Specialties spec = getSpec(index);
    return new SpecialtyWidget(spec: spec,);
  }

  Specialties getSpec(int index) {
    return new Specialties(
        mylist[index]['id'], mylist[index]['name'], mylist[index]['details'],
        new Photo('lib/images/' + mylist[index]['image'], mylist[index]['name'],
            mylist[index]['name']));
    //return new Specialties.fromMap(mylist[index]);

  }


  var jsonCodec = const JsonCodec();


}