The research I have seen says that you want the glitches, if they can be called that, EARLY in the blanking period, but not LATER in the blanking period. The prognosis for a successful ablation (free of diagnosed arrhythmia for one full year) is considerably better if you have short runs of AF or other ectopy in the first three/four weeks, than if they suddenly crop up on week 8. I'm not sure, but you probably still have three/four weeks to go, maybe more, in your blanking period? So, you'll have to await your turn with a Holter monitor at about the Week 12 point or so.

It is also true, across the ablation field, but with variance between EPS, that index ablations fail at the rate of about 25%. Second ablations have a somewhat better success rate with 15% failure. I needed two, and I have been free from AF for nearly two years (14th of this month). My first ablation went okay, but my heart seemed sluggish and unhappy if I went for a slow walk, which we are encouraged to do even the next day. My HR climbed to 128 with a slow shuffle. Then, Day 6, I climbed into our hot tub, and promptly felt AF starting. I was at my GP's office two hour later for the post-surgery checkup as requested in my instructions upon release from the cath lab, and he immediately said I had AF at the moment. He sent me to the hospital, and I was admitted and spent the night in the ICU. My HR was 30, and I was told to cease metoprolol, which I had been taking according to instructions as a prophylactic. I was placed on amiodarone, which thankfully corrected my AF to NSR over night.

The new ectopy can be disconcerting, but it is not unheard of, and the pamphlets given to me when I was released warned that many patients have ectopy for a while after an ablation, and that it usually goes away. The instructions said to go to an ER if the AF lasted more than 24 hours with a claimed rate of 100 or more.

I don't know what is going on in your body, so I can't address your question about sudden or gradual. For me, the onset of the new ectopy was sudden, and very dismaying. It kept returning every three weeks or so until I was ablated a second time, about seven months after the first go. Even then, at the two week point, I was back in the ER after the second ablation, again with AF. They sent me home after a 10 mg drip of metoprolol, and I converted at home. Never had another lick of AF since. Again, for me, suddenly back, and then suddenly gone.