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Melody Lau

@melodythelamb

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Producer @cbc_music
Author of Tegan and Sara: Modern Heartthrobs (Invisible Publishing)
Amateur photographer @theanaloglamb

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It's my 6 month anniversary of having a stroke today. Getting emotional looking at my old room at UHN, a little over 4 months ago since I left.

So much has changed for the better. I can raise my arm carefully above my head again 🙋‍♂️. That will help tremendously with getting my old clothes on once more. Elsewhere, I only need a walking stick for reassurance - the end is in sight for walking without aid sometime soon again 🚶 . I'm getting more activation in my arm and hand, as well 💪 Right now, the big challenge is overcoming different muscles that turned on at different times, causing opposing forces to become imbalanced. For example, my goal of getting my fingers to willingly open up (instead of being closed shut involuntarily ✊ ) was something I couldn't have imagined even 2 months ago 🖐️ - but now, the work begins on individual dexterity. 🤏

It hasn't been all positive, though - earlier this week, I was let go from my job, just short of my 8 year anniversary. The longest I had ever been any where. Made it through the pandemic, all the highs and the lows. I went from contract Account Executive to Account Director, with all the trust of my coworkers earned along the way. Hate how it had to end on a whimper, but I really was proud of all I accomplished, as well as my coworkers who were let go unceremoniously at the same time. We'll catch up somehow, but it's a shame we can't all be in the office one last time. I have so many stories left unsaid now. If you still care to listen, my DMs are always open, though. I look forward to more free time to recover, but I appreciate the company even more, these days.

This journey has made me grateful for everyone who has stuck with me through the thick and the thin. I can be truer with myself now, and open up to others much easier as well. Wherever I end up next in my career, I know I'll find good people, like I always have. And at 6 months, I'm still early on my journey by all stroke survivor accounts; that said, I can confidently say that I'm in good shape, all told. Every step, from the big ones outside of hospital to the little ones around my block, all say the same thing: just keep pushing forward.

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It's the perfect breezy, slightly chilly Friday night to spin your favourite records and cozy up with a cup of tea or a glass of wine. Here are two books for the music enjoyers:
♬ Tegan and Sara: Modern Heartthrobs by Melody Lau, published by our pals at @invisibooks
♫ The Dad Rock That Made Me a Woman by Niko Stratis

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A snapshot of some of the love “Gail” has received in the press and amongst critics so far. We can’t wait to premiere the film with everyone at TIFF tomorrow.

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The SS26 scrapbook

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I sway in place to a slow disco

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When I feel that I don’t belong
Draw my strength from the words when you said
“Hey, it’s about you, baby”
Look deeper inside you, baby

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Happy birthday to @melodythelamb! Words cannot describe want you done for me in the last 2 months, let alone the last (damn, it's been that long) nearly 13 years of the "dumbest couple ever". Let's give her her flowers, now and everyday - she deserves that and more.

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Some news: I had a brain hemorrhage at the gym on Thursday, April 9, 2026. Thanks to the team at UHN, a loving wife, a patient mother, and a few overwhelmingly generous friends and family, I can finally go home to rest in my own bed sheets again and begin my outpatient rehab on Wednesday, June 3. I'm returning home with all the same medications I came with. Speaking for myself: returning home in under 2 months for this with no complications yet...is nothing short of a miracle.

Needless to say, it has been a loooong journey that's still not even at the halfway point if all goes well. I can't cover it all right now, or ever, but this is my update for now.

To start: An AVM, a tangled mass of blood vessels, was the cause. There was no predicting when it would rupture; I had not previously been diagnosed, and there were no symptoms prior to. As far as I know, this could have happened at any one point in my life - no restrictions. That it happened at the one place I go to most frequently other than work and home, and I got help right away, is again...a miracle.

It was not a complication from my type 1 diabetes, either, or anything else. The odds of an AVM rupturing are 2-4%, worldwide. The odds of having type 1 diabetes with a genetic predisposition is 5%. The likelihood of having *both*, unrelated, & **surviving both**, for now...is still too much for me to comprehend. Chalk it up to my mother's sense of luck, really. I'm grateful to wake up everyday; I don't know when this feeling will end. It's guaranteed to leave me more emotional now, which is a relief to Melody who has endured my Finnish stoicism for too long (I kid, I love you).

**Continued in comments below**

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The Only Thing I Want For Christmas (Is Just To Keep The Things That I’ve Got) Volume 2

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More to do

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Happy to have #RiseUpAndSing & #WeOughtaKnow in the gift shop at the Royal B.C. Museum in support of its exhibition “Beyond the Beat” about the music of resistance and protest movements, especially in such incredible company (Tanya Tagaq! Melody Lau! Rollie Pemberton! To name a few!)🎵💕🎵I signed all of them because of course I did.

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June was my Grandmother’s name.

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