House is one of my favorite shows. Oddly enough, I have never seen it in first run – only reruns. When the show started I was watching something else in that time slot. And I have this funny unwritten rule – for series I like to watch the series from the beginning so I have all of the back story. I’ve seen just about every episode by now. I know what happened to his leg, but I don’t recall ever seeing any explanation on why with such debilitating pain he didn’t apply for social security disability. My guess is that he likes to work and likes the challenge of solving the medical mysteries. And besides. Maybe he wouldn’t qualify for disability. He can rock out with the air guitar pretty well, after all.