Columbia Memorial | Health Compass | Spring 2019

When he gets up in the morning, Hammond resident Ken Ulappa likes to drink coffee from his mug, do yoga and meditate while listening to Japanese music. He thinks about the thousands of people who passed away in the previous day. Despite his stage IV colon cancer, he has lived to see another. His simple clay mug, shaped by a potter’s hands, may not be of significance to most people. But for Ulappa, the mug is a quiet symbol, opening him to reflection and mindfulness. “The mug helps remind me that life is short,” Ulappa says. “Healthy people go to bed perfectly healthy and don’t wake up. And I still get to play today.” Ulappa says the mug is just an object. But its gentle reminder of what he has been through and the people he’s encountered along the way helps keep him grounded—and alive, he says. His cancer is contained for now. He’s fought the disease since 2015, long before the CMH-OHSU Knight Cancer Collaborative existed. He moved to the area after leaving Portland and watched the building go up. He saw the inside before it was even open, just walking in because “that’s just what I do.” A month after the Cancer Collaborative opened in 2017, Ulappa finished his first round of treatment at the center. Upon finishing, he was invited to choose a pottery mug. From a lump of clay Patients who complete a round of treatment at the Cancer Collaborative have been receiving handmade mugs from Astoria Dragon Kiln since 2011. The first batch of 100 mugs lasted a year and a half. This year, CMH asked the kiln to make 500—just for 2019. This increase is a reflection of how many more patients the Cancer Collaborative now cares for, says Oncology Infusion Nurse Jessica Rasmussen. The mugs are created by local potters Richard Rowland, a Mindfulness in a mug By Sarah Bello Ken Ulappa 4 HEALTH COMPASS SPRING 2019