Serving Oldsmar
Allergy, Asthma & Immune System Care for Oldsmar
For the family that seems to be on antibiotics more often than not — there is a specialty that asks why, and it is ours.
When infections keep coming back
There is a version of this story in a lot of Oldsmar households. A child who has had four ear infections since school started. An adult on their third sinus antibiotic since spring. Pneumonia that took two rounds to clear. Everyone treats each episode as its own event, and nobody steps back to ask why there are so many events.
Immune deficiency disorders may not be suspected until difficult-to-treat infections, recurrent pneumonia, ear infections or sinusitis, multiple courses of antibiotics to clear infections, or poor growth or weight loss become a concern. Sher Allergy Specialists diagnoses and treats immune deficiency disorders, and an allergic or immune system evaluation is often the right next step when other efforts at diagnosis and treatment have not worked.
Sometimes the answer is an immune problem. Frequently it is untreated allergic disease creating the conditions for infection — chronic sinusitis is associated with allergic rhinitis and asthma, and sinuses that cannot drain go on to become infected. Either way, the pattern deserves an explanation.
In children, the listed reasons to consult a pediatric allergist and immunologist include:
- Multiple ear, sinus or lung infections in a year
- Infections that require multiple courses of antibiotics to clear
- Recurrent respiratory infections
- Breathing trouble, including persistent cough or exercise intolerance
- Runny nose, watery eyes, itchiness, sneezing or coughing with no viral illness to explain it
- Poor growth or weight loss alongside frequent illness
The expertise this question requires
Allergic conditions are immune system disorders, and a board-certified Allergist/Immunologist is specially trained to diagnose, treat and manage allergies, asthma and other immune system disorders. A board-certified Allergist/Immunologist is on site for every visit at Sher Allergy Specialists.
Dr. Mandel R. Sher is board certified by the American Board of Allergy & Immunology and the American Board of Pediatrics, trained at Northwestern, Duke, Boston Children’s Hospital and the University of Michigan, and is Clinical Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics in the Division of Allergy and Immunology at the University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine. Dr. Johana Castro Wagner completed her USF Allergy and Immunology fellowship at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, is a member of the Clinical Immunology Society, and has published on immune dysregulation.
That is the level at which a recurring-infection question gets answered properly rather than deferred.
Oldsmar’s own exposures
Oldsmar sits at the top of Old Tampa Bay, at the inland corner of Pinellas County where the ballfields, preserves and open ground start. It is a different allergy environment from the beach towns twenty minutes west.
Florida has one major pollen season: tree pollen, which can start in late winter and run into late spring. Due to multiple factors, including climate change, that season has become longer and more symptomatic. Oak pollen is the major culprit behind springtime allergies, and other tree pollens such as bayberry, red cedar and bald cypress add to it; pine trees generally do not cause significant respiratory allergy. Add mold and dust mites holding steady all year in a humid climate, and there is a trigger available in nearly every month. Family cats and dogs can also cause respiratory allergies year-round.
Eczema tends to travel with all of it. Eczema produces red and itchy skin, most commonly in children though adults get it too, and it is often accompanied by asthma or hay fever. There is no cure yet, but we offer a full range of treatment options to manage the symptoms — including biologic therapy such as Dupixent for eczema that has not responded well to traditional treatment.
Getting here, and what one visit accomplishes
From Oldsmar, take Tampa Road or Race Track Road west and drop south on US-19, or run McMullen Booth Road down and cut west through Clearwater to Alternate 19, which becomes Seminole Boulevard. We are at the Largo Professional Center, 11200 Seminole Blvd, Suite 310, with parking on site.
We aim to make that one trip productive: listening to the full history, examining, and performing allergy testing and interpretation on the same day when possible, so you leave with a diagnosis and treatment steps. Our care philosophy is to do the least medicine to achieve the most good — a trial-and-error approach wastes time and money and adds the risks of unnecessary medications, procedures and testing. After the visit, your Allergist sends a letter to your primary care or referring doctor so the whole picture stays in one place.
Questions from Oldsmar families
How many infections is too many?
There is no single number, but multiple ear, sinus or lung infections in a year, or infections that repeatedly need more than one course of antibiotics, are listed reasons to see an allergist and immunologist. If the pattern is frustrating you, that is reason enough to have it evaluated.
Is an immune evaluation a big, invasive process?
It starts the way every visit here starts — with a detailed history, a physical examination and appropriate testing. Skin testing is done in this office, and the appropriate blood tests ordered are chosen for accuracy rather than volume, specifically to avoid expensive and unproven testing with minimal value. At Sher Allergy Specialists, your allergy skin tests are personally measured and read by a physician or physician assistant, with physician oversight and interpretation, rather than simply recorded by a technician or medical assistant for later review.
My child’s eczema flares no matter what cream we use. Is that an allergy problem?
It is worth an allergy evaluation. Eczema often accompanies asthma or hay fever, and identifying environmental or food triggers changes what management looks like. For eczema that has not responded well to traditional treatment, biologic therapy is an option we can discuss.
Do you see adults for immune questions, or only children?
Both. This is a pediatric and adult allergy, asthma and immunology practice, and the recurrent-infection pattern shows up in adults just as often — it is simply diagnosed later, because adults are used to pushing through.
Ask why, not just what antibiotic
Call our friendly Sher Allergy team at 727-397-8557 to schedule an evaluation. Bring the history of infections and treatments — that timeline is the most valuable thing you can hand us.
Largo Professional Center
11200 Seminole Blvd #310
Largo, FL 33778
Monday 8:00 - 5:00
Tuesday 9:00 - 6:00
Wednesday 8:00 - 5:00
Thursday 8:00 - 5:00
Friday 8:00 - 12:00