I'm Ana, I'm 22 and I'm from Portugal
I got top braces (not full, though, because some of the teeth have to be aligned first before I can put on the rest of the top braces - so I don't even know how long it will be until I get the bottom ones) on February 21st and it's been ... interesting.
The first week was definitely the worst, as my entire mouth was cut, swollen and I could barely eat or talk because of it (not because of tooth aches, though). After that, though, I've pretty much resumed my normal life except for biting with my front teeth - that's still hard.
Last week one of my back brackets unglued itself (I say it was beer, my doctor says it was food; who knows?) and I had to put it back on, so now the last bracket doesn't have the arch wire through it (which feels weird and surprisingly insecure) and not only did the doctor forget to clip a bit of wire from the other end (so now I'm back with the wax), he also didn't put one of my elastics correctly, so now one of the ends has slipped off and I can't get it right again.
ANYWAY. I found this board during my first week of braces but decided to register now, since it's always good to share this experience with a bunch of different people with their own experiences!
So sorry for the rambling.
Ana