APEX

I am using jQuery tabs with six tabs to show a bunch of reports, with a few reports on each tab. I am using the jQuery cookie plugin to remember the tab - this works ok. Page submit is slow because all reports are refreshed unconditionally each time a submit is called. I want to add a condition so that only the report on the currently selected tab is refreshed. Ideally, I want to maintain the tab# in a hidden item and create a condition for each report (or region) to only display when it's tab is selected.

Jari's blog article shows how to assign the tab number to a page item
http://dbswh.webhop.net/dbswh/f?p=BLOG:READ:0::::ARTICLE:195800346705831

But using "selected" seems to break the cookie: after changing the tab (and correctly updating the page item), the next submit changes the tab to the prior one selected. I cannot get both to work at once. I never want to reset the selected tab from the one in the cookie ; I only want to save the selected tab#. Users can only change tabs by clicking on a tab. I am not much of a javascript developer so it is likely to be something trivial.

This is my page header javascript - you can see where I've added a chunk of Jari's code.

<script type="text/javascript">
//<![CDATA[   
   $(function(){  
   $tabs = $("#PANE_1_T");

   $tabs.tabs({
       selected:'&P17000_SELECTED_TAB.',
       select:function(e,u){
        var a=new htmldb_Get(null,&APP_ID.,"APPLICATION_PROCESS=DUMMY",&APP_PAGE_ID.)
        a.add("P17000_SELECTED_TAB",u.index);
        var r=a.get();
         } 
     });	

    $tabs.tabs({ cookie: { expires: 1}});	 
    $tabs.parents('td').eq(0).removeAttr('width');
    $tabs.show();
   });
//]]>
</script>

(Apex 3.2.1)

What am I doing wrong?
Any help appreciated!
Mark Teehan, Singapore