I am attempting to detect the current panorama item that a user is currently on and then toggle an application bar icon button isenabled property accordingly. I have not had any
The way I'd do it is to name the panorama, then you can refer to its selectedIndex property to determine which panorama item is selected. I believe that would be more efficient than dealing with strings that are in the headers.
...
private void PanoramaItemSelectionChanged(object sender, SelectionChangedEventArgs e)
{ switch (x.SelectedIndex) ... }
I would also add though, that it is not a best practice to use the application bar in a panorama, in fact it is recommended that you not do so, but whether you do or not is really up to you.