Bixby’s Therapeutic Touch moves to new island location
Vonceil (Vonnie) Bixby of Therapeutic Touch, Medical Massage in Pine Island Center is a certified medical massage practitioner who had to move after Hurricane Ian destroyed her place of business in St. James City.
“When I went to my office, there was a 4-foot waterline on the walls — everything got flooded,” Bixby said.
While looking for a new place to set up, she said Patty Sweeney of Sweeney’s S.O.S allowed her to set up temporarily, for which Bixby considered herself very lucky, and also for her new location, which she said has become one of her favorite places.
When it comes to massage therapy, or body work, she said she’s chosen this profession in order to be able to help those who are in pain.
“What turned me toward massage was that I had an injury and the doctors put me on pain meds, but never suggested massage. I struggled for about a year and then once I met a chiropractic and massage practitioner, they had me pain free in two weeks. There’s more to muscle work than meets the eye or what we know, so I wanted to educate others and help others not go through what I did and not have to suffer with pain if they don’t have to. If it’s muscle, it can be corrected,” Bixby said.
One of her top priorities, she said, is correcting her clients’ bodies back into balance until they are out of pain. While Bixby has made relieving the suffering of others a lifetime career choice, her own health has had to take center stage in her life, as she has been diagnosed with stage four cancer, which is terminal.
“I’ve met a lot of people through my work, especially with having cancer and treatments afterward — radiation, surgery — I’m able to help them,” Bixby said.
Having received her certification in lymphatic drainage has been helpful, she said, as many people suffer with post-surgery lymph edema (swelling) and she is able to help them, as she helped herself after surgery.
“I’m wanting to help others to do the same thing — correct themselves through self-care with manual lymphatic drainage,” Bixby said.
She honestly believes this may be her life’s purpose, she said, as body-work itself has been, thus far, very satisfying, even in light of her own health issues, which take her regularly to Moffitt Cancer Center for IV infusions.
“No matter what I do, in life, I have to be back at the Cancer Center getting treatment every 3 weeks,” Bixby said.
For six years there was no evidence of active disease, she said, until after Hurricane Ian, when it did progress, she said, due to stress on the central nervous system. Now, Bixby said, she will go through medicine after medicine, until they stop working.
“You go on a different drug and you use that drug until it doesn’t work anymore and then you go to the next — basically until you run out and then when you run out, you go to Hospice,” Bixby said.
In addition to her infusions Bixby said she has to undergo scans every four months, to be certain whatever new medicine she is on is still working. In her own words, this is simply the card she was dealt, and must be looked at as a part of her life.
Therapeutic Touch Medical Massage is at 5507 Pine Island Road, N.W., Suite A, Bokeelia, Fl. 33922.
Vonnie Bixby PHOTO PROVIDED
To reach PAULETTE LeBLANC / pleblanc@breezenewspapers.com, please email