Change value of Variable

Hello,
I've a situation in which i have to count the number of
transactions/records, retrieved from my XML document, on one page. I have to
show that number at the end of each page, with this I've to also show the
total number of records in one document. I figure it will be solved by using
variables but still can't find the way to solve this issue, as variables can
only be defined once and it cannot be accessed outside the boundary in which
it is defined. Is there any possible way supported by XSLT?
Thanks for your Help!
Regards,
Saqib javed