Last month, i was a week late on my period and had a week long brown stringy discharge instead. spotted for 5 days two weeks later. still no period...

Brown discharge: First, if sexually active, it is best to check a pregnancy test just to make sure because some women spot early in pregnancy. If negative, then the brown discharge WAS your period. Sometimes the bleeding is just very light, and looks brown (dried blood/tissue) rather than red. Every woman has irregularity in her cycles from time to time. The next cycle will likely be heavier.