"Wow, I didn't see this coming," Etheridge wrote on her website's message board. "But the good news is they took out the tumor and a few lymph nodes, only one of which was positive ... the centinal node (for those that know breast cancer speak). After that my margins are clean! I still have both of my breasts and whether I will keep them is a bridge I have to cross later. What an unexpected journey this is."

Etheridge went on to thank her fans for their "messages of support and love," and said that she will soon begin chemotherapy. While recovering, she plans to work on new songs to be included on her upcoming greatest hits compilation, and work will continue on a pilot for ABC-TV.

"I imagine you will see me again around the beginning of the year," she wrote.

Etheridge is recuperating at home in Los Angeles with her wife and children, according to her publicist. Etheridge wed actress Tammy Lynn Michaels last year, and has joint custody of two children with her previous partner, Julie Cypher; Cypher conceived both children via artificial insemination using sperm from singer/songwriter David Crosby.