chemgal - I can see your problem.  For social occasions, I think I would simply give a big smile and say 'excuse me for not shaking hands.'    Business - I really don't know.  

And dancing - I don't know what type you do.  For me, square dancing requires a lot of hand contact.  When we take positions hand contact is light.  The man holds his hand palm up, the woman lays her hand across it.  Many moves are accomplished by simply touching the fingers, or palm to palm.  But others - the 'grand right and left' usually requires a firm grip - but a person might be able to participate by doing a 'weave'.  Some moves we actually pull the partner by us in a manouver or support the partner by gripped hands as we both lean back.  What to do????   How to take part???     Since many of us dancers are seniors, several wear a badge that reads "Please do not swing me."  And when it is 'everybody swing' those people simply step back.  Perhaps you could wear a badge reading something like  "Please do not grab my hand."   

But your type of dancing is probably different - so I'll leave it to others to offer solutions.

Thanks Seeler, for dancing I think the contact is similar.  Palms to palms, sometimes fingers to palms, etc.  I'll have to test it out with someone I guess when it's quieter.  It might not be a problem at all and if it is, a badge could work.

chemgal-it all depends-if chemguy is your partner-then no problem-he can be trained

As  for shking hands you can just say-oh sorry-sore hand and leave it at that.

Thanks Tabitha.  For dancing, you never dance with the same person twice in a row, and sometimes you switch multiple times for a song.  Chemguy rarely comes.

Thats how it is with square dancing too - you start with your partner but follow the calls and generally go around the set touching hands, swinging, promading with the others.  "All join hands and circle left."  "Allemande with your corner."  "Ladies cross over."  and the "Grand right and left" - as well as the "Do-si-do" and 'weave the ring" where you don't touch.

What type of dancing do you do?  

Swing - lindy, charleston, balboa and blues.

Within a song, I wouldn't change partners as often as in square dancing, but there are special times to do it, jam circles, special routine songs, when a time is opened up for stealing.

Here's an example of a jam circle:

chemgal, is that you?

Hi chemgal,

Speaking personally I would rather not shake hands if there is a possibility that my doing so normally would cause you injury or exacerbate a previous one.  And if you permit a handshake that is likely to cause pain I would question whether or not I want an employee that won't establish simple and straight forward boundaries.  

On top of that I'd feel like a heel for the rest of the evening because I don't shake hands to harm individuals.

It is appropriate for folk with injured hands to mention that when the customary greeting is to shake hands.

Grace and peace to you.

John

No CH, just the first video I found via google/youtube that wasn't from a competition.

Thanks John.  I didn't even realize it would be an issue until it happened.  I hope he didn't notice, but it's something I would like to avoid in the future.