executenonquery  returns  an integer of records affected. Perhaps it will indicate sucess or failure of table create.

http://www.learnasp.com/freebook/learn/executenonquery.aspx

I wish I knew more about mySQL in this; maybe some of the mySQL types will speak up.

TRY
        .executenonquery
CATCH ex1 as exception 
        trace.warn("","",ex1)
END TRY

According to the docs, ExecuteNonQuery only returns  a value other
than -1 on UPDATE, INSERT and DELETE statements. However, your kind
reply stimulated my problem-solving brain cell (I only have one left)
when you wrote " ... returns an integer of records affected."

I "discovered", then used the DataReader.RecordsAffected property.
I'm using the Microsoft.Data.Odbc classes for this exercise, so:

Dim myExecuteQuery as String = "CREATE database  IF NOT exists  my_database"
myConnection.Open()
Dim myCommand As New OdbcCommand(myExecuteQuery, myConnection)

'Need to use a DataReader before accessing the RecordsAffected property

Dim myDataResults as OdbcDataReader
myDataResults = myCommand.ExecuteReader()
myDataResults.Read()
myDataResults.Close()

'After the DataReader is closed, the RecordsAffected property is set.

DbMessage.Text = myDataResults.RecordsAffected()
If DbMessage.Text = "0"
formMessage.Text = "Database already exists."
Else If DbMessage.Text = "1"
formMessage.Text = "Database created."
End If

MyConnection.Close()

dim intrecs=myDataResults.RecordsAffected()
formMessage.Text = switch(intrecs=0,"Database exists.",intrecs=1,"Database created.")

or better yet

dim intrecs=myDataResults.RecordsAffected()
formMessage.Text = choose(intrecs+1,"Database exists.","Database created.")