You’re not gonna get many linux users respecting your opinion on tech if youre such an outlier. Windows 7? Cmon, ya gotta expect to get pushback on this right? Not just Linux nerds either… like Who do you tell this bombshell to and they’re like “yeah ok that’s normal?”
Echoing other commenters see another doc this isn’t aging at all.
I’m no doc either but swelling like this all the way back to May/June at your age is def not normal.
I know someone who’s young and deals with gout, which sounds kinda similar but it could be a lot of things that could get worse from hesitating so duck that quack and get a second opinion