My son has braces, and I swear it seems like they will never come off!
I feel yours and his pain! I had them for 5 years! They are so worth it though to have nice aligned perfect teeth and a perfect bite! 
He had this device for the first six months called a Herbst.  Have you ever heard of that?
I have not specifically heard of a Herbst, but I do know many appliances are used in conjunction with the braces. I had one at the top of my mouth to widen the roof of my mouth. I had a key I had to put in it to widen it every day. What is the Herbst?
The Herbst device was to correct an overbite.  It looked like shocks from a car on each side of his mouth to pull lower jaw forward.
Oh okay yes, I have seen those my friend had them, I just didn't know their name. She said she had those because she didn't wear her rubber bands and she cant take those off! lol
They were like a torture device!  The thing you had sounds like one too!
Yes! But it did its job! Braces have been around since ancient times, I always wonder what they did in place of the devices they have now.
I'm surprised they've been around that long!  I'm picturing a cave man getting mad at his wife calling him metal mouth.
That is funny! Yes and then when people died they even buried them with the dnetal devices in tact because they thought it would prevent collapse of the teeth! As if it would matter Lol!