first gout attack

I thought it was water retention in my foot at first and started drinking a lot of water in order to dilute what I thought was salt, but it turned out to be gout. I know water helps gout, but it was not as simply as just drinking water. The aceclofenac I was prescribed was a very effective painkiller and seems to be working. I can now sleep at night, whereas before whatever position I put my foot it was uncomfortable and I got little sleep. It is working much better now I decided to co-operate with the process and try to work out what I am eating that is causing the gout. I ate a packet of baked (not fried) cheesy stick things (a bit like potato chips) the other day, and immediately felt my foot getting more painful. So I stopped eating that. I looked on goutpal.com and got some ideas for alkaline food and so had some french fries and chocolate sundaes yesterday when I was unsure what else I could eat that would not contravene the gout rules, and so for more than 24 hours I have had no major attack. Finally tonight I found myself WALKING NORMALLY without thinking about it. My ankle seems to vary in pain and ease of wallking at different times of the day, and so I don't think the gout is necessarily over - I will need to see how it is all day tomorrow to be sure, but at least for the first time in 8 days I experienced no pain at all and was walking normally! I dearly hope this is not going to be a lifelong thing!