APEX

I just created a redirect button that I want to redirect to the same page and set the 2 page items on the page to the same value they had before the redirect.
But I can't write:
Set These Items: P1_Permit_Number,P1_Fishing_Year
With These Values: &P1_Permit_Number.,&P1_Fishing_Year.

Because there are no values in the session state, since a submit has not been done.

So how do I do this?
I know how to get the values stored in the items, e.g., $v('P1_PERMIT_NUMBER')
but where do I place that command? It's not allowed under "With These Values"
And I don't really want to make this a submit button and create a process that says:
P1_PERMIT_NUMBER := $v('P1_PERMIT_NUMBER') because that would complicate the page too much -- I already have other processes and branches on the pages whose conditions would have to be modified so that they don't run during this scenario.

Thanks.