How I Survived a Venomous Snake Bite in My Own Backyard — Then 10 Hours of 'Excruciating Pain' (Exclusive)

Rafael Freitas tells PEOPLE about his ordeal and shares advice for anyone who finds themselves in a similar situation

Rafael Freitas loves to go hiking and camping just outside of his home in Atlanta.

But it was in the relative calm of his own backyard where he was bitten by a venomous copperhead snake on July 3 — landing in the intensive care unit for three days before he was sent home with instructions to elevate his ankle for two weeks.

The Realtor, who is uninsured but has taken on a second job with a general contractor, has started a GoFundMe to help with the hospital bills from his antivenom treatment.

Freitas, 39, recently spoke with PEOPLE's Anna Lazarus Caplan to detail his experience and share advice for anyone who finds themselves in a similar situation.

My girlfriend, Leslie, and I were getting ready for our Fourth of July party. The night before, we were taking a night swim. We noticed there were some leaves in the pool, so we got out. No one else was at the house. We go to the side to get the netting to scoop the leaves up. She went in front of me to the shed, and I stayed outside of the fence waiting for her to hand it off the equipment to me.

That's when I looked down and I just felt this huge fire go up my foot.

It was the worst pain ever. Never felt anything like it. I looked down immediately — I thought I stepped on fire or something. I was like, "Why is there fire out here?"

I looked down and I saw two bite marks, two little points. There was blood coming out of them, and then some yellow goo. I squeezed as much as I could. I realized, “Oh crap, this is a snake bite.” And I looked over to my left and I saw the copperhead coiled up, hissing back at me with his mouth completely open.

I was like ... we got to move quick and go to the ER. So I immediately go hopping to the kitchen sink and I'm just running cold water through it while my girlfriend is packing up our stuff to run to the ER.

We get to the ER and the protocol for this thing is so messed up: If you ever do get a snake bite, a venomous snake bite, the protocol is they don't immediately give you the antivenom because it isn't always needed. They have to wait and see how much of the venom got into your body. And the way they do that, they looked to see how far it spreads within a certain amount of time.

So the threshold for me, since I got bit in the foot, was the knee. If the swelling went down from my ankle all the way to my knee here, that's when they would decide to give me the antivenom, because they say once it gets past the knee and back, it's pretty quick to get to your vital organs in your heart.

That meant I was in excruciating pain for 10 hours, until the antivenom came.

They gave me two rounds of morphine before that to help with the pain. That didn't work. I was admitted to the ICU and they ended up giving me Dilaudid, which is a much stronger painkiller medication than they give you at the ER.

I was in the ICU for three nights. Every hour, a nurse would come in and they would measure around my knee to check on the swelling. They took my regular knee size, which is about 14 and a half inches, and they would just compare that to see the reactions of the antivenom if the swelling is actually going down.

Interestingly enough, right after I got the antivenom, I immediately felt nauseous and threw up. I guess that's a side effect, getting all that crap out of your system. And then they gave me some antibiotics, Vancomycin, I ended up having an allergic reaction to, so now my shoulder and my neck and my face are breaking out in hives. My lip is three times as big. It was quite the experience.

My knee actually blew up two extra inches, two and a half inches. It went from 14 and a half to almost 18, and it stayed swollen for a couple of hours after the antivenom. Later that night, I finally plateaued at 15 and a half. I was at 15 and a half for two days. And then on the second day, kind of towards the tail end of that day, coming on Day Three, that's when my knee finally started going down.

They were not going to discharge me until my knee, the swelling was under control. When I went home, it began to improve. So I'm grateful for that.

The scariest moment [of the entire ordeal] was the first five minutes. The first couple of minutes before you get to the ER was getting in the car realizing that my girlfriend is hauling a-- to the ER because there's venom in my body. That was kind of a surreal moment for me, and I think there was a split-second there where I thought, “Holy crap, this is how I'm going to go out. It's a snake bite. Go figure."

We go camping every year. We've come across venomous snakes out in the woods. There's a lot of forests around here [in Atlanta]. A lot of parks, especially in the North Georgia mountains, are beautiful. We tend to go out there almost every other weekend, go on a hike or do extended days where we go camping. We've seen cottonmouths. We've seen all kinds of things. But I didn't even see this guy coming.

He was coming from the other side of the fence, and when my girlfriend got into that pool equipment area, I guess it spooked him. He came out underneath the fence and saw me standing there, and that's how I got bit or I would've seen him. I would like to say I would've seen him.

When I looked down, I told Leslie, “That's a copperhead. Holy s---, we got to go." That's when my heart kind of sank. When I saw the pattern, the kind of orange, burnt-orange and some brown with the hourglass shape or Hershey’s Kisses-shape pattern on its back, I knew it was a copperhead when that thing had its mouth open.

I've started walking with a cane, so I'm getting around a little bit easier now. I still can't fully put weight on it.

I don't have 100% of mobility on my ankle, but it's definitely getting better for sure.

After being home for two weeks I finally went back to work on Monday, July 22. I would say I'm 95% better. Im now walking, with a little limp, without any assistance from a cane or walker. My ankle is still a little swollen but not enough to hold me back in any way.

I have a follow-up appointment this week with the infectious disease specialist who saw me in ICU to check my ankle. I'm not sure if I will have any long term issues. As of now, I'm really focusing on managing the swelling as much as possible and trying not to worry about things that are out of my control.

People need to be aware, especially down here in Georgia. I mean, there's copperheads everywhere, really. But the interesting thing about 'em is they're nocturnal, which I didn't know about, and they really don't want to bite you. They're pretty scared creatures. So that's why I'm feeling that I either got too close to him or he got really close to me and it spooked him when he came from under the fence.

Those guys, they'll bite you once to keep you away, and that's it. They don't keep coming after you, which was this case.

Be aware if you're going to be out in the woods, even though this happened in my backyard. I'm really grateful that I knew what kind of snake it was to be able to convey that to the folks at the hospital so they knew what they were dealing with.

Had I not known what kind of snake it was, the process could have taken a little bit longer. And who knows what the outcome would've been.

I would just say just be aware of your surroundings. Just know if you're going to go out camping, make sure you know where the local hospitals are if you're going to be out in the woods. That's something we've never done in the past, but you can bet that we're going to start. Be familiar with what's out there. It could save your life. 

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