Ok so here is my experience today.
My appointment was for 9am. I showed up at 8:30, and I was shocked to see that they were not open. I started panicking. This doctor has three different offices, what if I stupidly made the appointment at one of his other offices? I decided to just wait 30 mins and see if they would show up. I took the bus so I was outside for that time, and it was really cold.
But I digress. The office staff showed up and opened the office and I was seen immediately. I had read on this forum that lip balm is essential, so I slathered it on. First the doctor placed my molar bands. I was supposed to have 4, but when he was doing the upper left side, I noticed that the band hit a filling in my bottom molar. And OMG that was painful. Every time the metal hit that filling a jolt of electricity shot through my body. I could not have lived with that for two years. I told him about it, and he said he would just put a bracket on that tooth instead.
They spread my cheeks (doesn't sound right) with the retractor and the assistant prepped my teeth. Whatever they put on my teeth smelled foul and tasted even worse.
I am telling you, between that and the glue I was feeling nauseous by the time it was all said and done. The ortho placed the brackets on the top, the assistant dried them with a light. Same with the bottoms. A front bottom incisor was left unbracketed since it is going to be extracted. I chose metal colored ligs to blend in with my metal braces.
The wires were placed, then the bottom wire was cut around the unbracketed tooth. The pain started right after the wires went on. Dull at first, now increasing in intensity. The ortho is expanding my arches with these wires, and to prevent my diastema from getting bigger he placed a power chain (i think?) between my two front teeth.
There was a lot of messy glue on my teeth, I asked him to remove the excess with his drill, which he happily did. He is pretty nice.
The annoying thing is that once they were done, the assistant put on this flouride treatment that I had to leave on for 30 minutes. It was pink but turned white on my teeth. Now it is difficult to remove. It looks like tartar, my teeth look so bad. I tried brushing and its coming off little by little. They gave me a kit with some nice things but only one (pitiful) interdental brush so I will stock up tonight.
All in all I am freaking out wondering how I am going to get through the next 18+ months. A few guys attempted to talk to me on my way home, but I was not even comfortable smiling at them. I don't like the way these things look...but I thank God that I am doing something to improve myself in the long run.
I am not really able to eat as my teeth hurt and furthermore, they won't really meet together... I have been on a diet for a month now and the spacers helped me control my eating even more. Now I guess it will be even easier for me, the only cavet being I was doing a vegan diet. I don't think I can do the vegan thing anymore since most raw veggies are crunchy. I bought a bunch of greek yogurt, soups, hummus, almond milk and stuff so I won't completely starve.
Forgot to add, I was supposed to go into work for a half day but I am actually in too much pain and sort of nauseous...
to looking like this 
Can't wait to just be done with it. Please tell me the next 18 months are going to fly by...
Worth trying if it helps things get less sore more quickly but have soft stuff on hand just in case. The first week or so really is the worst of it and then it gets so much better. Painkillers, warm drinks, soft food and you'll be okay! I promise!
Just keep thinking about the final result, be happy with the small changes you see on a daily or weekly basis, and before you know it the weeks and months will have flown by. Keep smiling!