A couple of replies to comments left years ago:

September 25th, 2008 at 8:18 am
Matt1618 wrote:
“hey FloydBono, thanks for the spoiler! I’m still catching up on the episodes!”

Well, ya know, Matt (and others), when the original air date for a show was 3.5 years before you viewed it, I don’t think you have a reasonable expectation of people warning about spoilers in their comments…

December 26th, 2008 at 5:36 pm
Jay writes:
“It wasn’t until after he was in a coma that Cuddy suggested a middle ground (between amputation and what House wanted) to House’s girlfriend, who took it upon herself to be his medical proxy.”

Incorrect. House is not already in the coma when Cuddy mentions to Stacy the “middle ground.”

Okay, so last, despite my response to Matt1618, here is a *SPOILER WARNING”: Since this is a seminal episode and since we learn that House does have the dead muscle tissue removed, would it be possible for him to basically “return to normal” (no limp, regaining apparent total use of the leg) as shown in Season 3 Ep 1? I mean it is not just a case if atrophied muscle but missing muscle tissue.

I found Surya’s post about the amputee and the mirror quite interesting considering House ended up doing this in an Episode in the future. Good call or Producers reading this site? You be the judge lol.

I like the show very much, but more for the gritty humour and holmesian riddle-solving than for the medical stuff. I am however allergic to plot holes and internal contradictions in TV shows!! That is why I need to understand the medicine and whether it makes sense or not, especially on this oh so brilliant episode… and probably also why I don’t watch many series (totally agree with the NCIS comment btw!).

Virtually all my questions have been answered on this page (not the one by Christine about swabbing the leg instead of the dog… this one made my laugh ;p), but I landed here with a theory – coming across it on the web made me think back about House’s condition. It seems that nerve damage can be caused by compartment syndrome linked to muscle death (increased pressure inside a muscular fascia damages the tissue inside, including vessels and nerves), especially since one of the symptoms is pain disproportionate with the extent of the injury.
However, with this explanation Stacy’s decision would not have changed anything – the pain would have been caused by the infarction and late diagnosis. This is why I like the removal of dead tissue (and severing of nerves) theory better.

The funny thing is that writers have probably NOT thought everything through and don’t have consistent background on every aspect of the story… They make mistakes and overlook some elements, that’s only human, and House is still brilliant storytelling. Sometime we can come up with a consistent explanation to fill the gaps (thanks again for doing much of that here!), sometime we don’t, which I find frustrating, but all in all, that makes us part of the creative process, and that’s what keeps the show alive, and interesting!

As for House’s leg, I find it rather nice to see doctor’s being hypocritical as the rest of us. His (ex-)wife made a very valid point, “If this was any other patient you would have brow-beaten them into agreeing…”. You would have thought this would give him more sympathy to his patients after being blind-sided similarly.

But then again, the writer’s have made it abundantly clear that House nor any other major cast in this show would ever develop or change. If I want that I’ll go watch NCIS.

I was just wondering, couldn’t they have swabbed the guy’s leg instead of getting a swab from the dog’s mouth?

-Christine