I first got ocular migraines in my 40's, during perimenopause. Around the same time I had Raynaud's for several months, and various neurological oddities. My ocular migraines were usually a transparent pattern, like a crackle glaze on pottery, superimposed over my field of vision. I had them daily for months but they never lasted more than a minute. The other symptoms in hindsight I believe were the beginnings of neuropathy, but probably not the migraines. I found out that my mother has them, and both my kids have had them since childhood. None of them have neuropathy. They see various neon zigzag or bubble patterns. My daughter also has the headaches.

When this first happened I was afraid the eye doctor would think I was nuts, but of course he knew right away what it was. For a long time I could never make sense of how physiologically this could occur--including one episode of seeing bicycle wheels turning, and bugs crawling about amongst them. Now I think it's just that a part of the brain was being affected that had previously processed those kind of visions or patterns.

It was interesting to read that the cause may be inflammatory, since my neurologist is convinced that my SFN is inflammatory, even though there's never been objective evidence of it.