NBC News Drier summers and wetter winters are expanding the range of the fungus. The same conditions drive increasingly intense wildfires. Brynn Carrigan’s headaches started in April 2024. Within a couple of weeks, she was debilitated.
Her vomiting exacerbated the excruciating pain in her skull. She spent nearly every hour in bed with the covers pulled over her head, blocking out any sliver of light. Even the clock on her microwave was too much.
“I went from training for a marathon, raising two teenagers and having a job to essentially being bedridden,” said Carrigan, 41, of Bakersfield, California, who works for Kern County Public Health.