Jessie James Decker recalls walking out onto the stage to headline her own concert when a migraine attack hit. “Every note I sang felt like my head was going to explode,” she said. “It was awful.”
This was just one of many times when Decker recalls feeling like she had no choice but to power through her migraine pain.
Decker has lived with the condition for as long as she can remember. “I’ve suffered from migraine [attacks] since I was a little girl, but for a long time, I didn’t understand what was happening,” she said. “I thought I just got really bad headaches.”
When a migraine attack would hit, she often experienced a dull, pounding pain. “I would feel like I needed to close my eyes and lie down,” she said, noting that it was so much more than a typical headache that you could treat with an over-the-counter medication and move on from. “Sometimes it would last for days,” she said. “I knew it was something more.”
When she turned 22, Decker met her husband, NFL player Eric Decker. After a few months of dating, she and Eric moved in together, and he began noticing a pattern and felt it had to be more than just a headache. “I was constantly complaining about my head, and he encouraged me to get it checked out,” said Decker.
With Eric’s encouragement, Decker underwent a full evaluation and was diagnosed with migraine disease. “It was validating after all those years of not knowing what was going on,” she said. The next step was to figure out how to take care of herself and find treatments that could help.
Learning to prioritize self-care
Looking back at life with migraine before diagnosis, Decker recognizes that she probably wasn’t managing her health as well as she does now. “I’ve learned a lot over the years and become much better about taking care of myself.”
She admitted she’s always been someone who powers through. “My mindset was always, ‘Let’s tough it out. Let’s push through and get it done,’” she said. But after learning more about migraine, she realized she needed to prioritize both her mental and physical health.
There’s no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to migraine. “Some people try acupuncture, chiropractic care, medication or holistic approaches,” said Decker. “I’ve tried just about everything because when you’re living with migraine, you want to find what works.”
She has learned to tune into her
“My husband knows when a migraine is coming before I even say anything,” said Decker. “He’s learned my signals over the years.”
She also reminds people to speak up about how they are feeling both to their families and HCPs. “Migraine is often invisible. It’s not like a broken arm or an injury you can see,” she said. “If your partner doesn’t communicate what they’re experiencing, it can be hard to know how to help. That’s why communication is so important.”