Dennis, Glad you are mostly ok and should have a quick recovery. Getting bitten by anything is no fun. Please excuse me for using your thread to pontificate for a moment. This is a particularly bad year for snake encounters and we are seeing more snakes of all kinds than we usually do. Hospitals and EMTs are seeing many more bites than usual. Most of us expect to find snakes in the woods but not in our yards especially if we live in a suburban environment. If a couple of minutes of cautions helps someone else avoid the encounter you had, its worth it. The next victim may not be as fortunate as you were.
Rattlesnakes and Copperheads are both pit vipers. A common anti-venom is used to treat both. While its helpful to know what bit you, its not essential to know whether it was a copperhead or a rattlesnake. We do not have cotton mouths or coral snakes in our area so I am not sure what anti-venoms are used for them. I do know that not all hospitals have anti-venom on hand and it makes sense to go earlier than late as the hospital is likely to have to get anti-venom from another hospital and that hospital may be at some distance. Rough guess in my area of Upstate SC based on the lists we get, less than 1 in 10 hospitals has anti-venom on hand. Bites from larger snakes are generally less venomous than bites from smaller snakes. Older snakes generally do not release all of their venom while young snakes often do resulting in a more serious bite. A substantial amount of damage in cases of snakebite are the result of bacterial infections which means that a bite from a non-venomous snake can be almost as destructive as that from a poisonous snake. We tend to think of snakes as being ground critters but they are just as often found nestled in branches or on the side of trees as they are on the ground. In areas where there is a lot of pig activity, young snakes in particular stay high (chest to head high) to stay out of reach of the pigs which are omnivores. It may be worthwhile to scan your fig branches before reaching around pots. I have never encountered a snake in my fig trees but I have found them in my blueberry bushes. My first encounter was catching a movement above my shoulder while I was weeding under a bush. I looked to see what had moved and it was a 6'+ black snake. Not venomous but it did have an impact when I thought what might have happened had it been poisonous.
Many of you are well aware of everything I have posted here especially if you live in a more rural setting however a lot of times people who live in urban areas don't really see themselves as being at risk for a snake bite. To that end, the snake bite capital of SC when you look at the number of copperhead bites per capita by geographic area is Hilton Head Island. One last thing before I get off my spiel, snakes inter-breed and that includes venomous snakes. Don't count on classic colorations to help you identify a snake. If the snake has a wide head vs a bullet shaped head or is thick bodied in the case of larger snakes, give it wide berth. Most snakes are good guys so let them be. If you are lucky enough to have king or black snakes, rejoice! They eat young poisonous snakes for breakfast and you are less likely to encounter a bad guy wherever they are found.