Hi! I’m a type 1. I have been on ace inhibitors since 2005. I had kidney damage after one of my kidneys failed (diabetes related) and developed proteinuria. I started taking Altace, which gave me a horrible cough (so badly I couldn’t even speak), and switched to Atacand, which I’ve been on ever since. I started with 8mg/day. Since then, my proteinuria is gone, and my kidney function has healed, but I was asked to stay on Atacand for maintenance and prevention, but my dose was lowered to 4mg/day. These drugs are extremely expensive without coverage. I would suggest if you can get samples or a generic drug, do it.
As far as wondering why you haven’t been taking this before, in the last 6 years, what they know about diabetes, treatment and maintenance has grown and changed a lot. They are constantly augmenting their methods to give better treatment. Chances are, the average number of diabetics requiring the drug as a treatment was increasing at a large enough rate that it became apparent it needs to be part of a general care regimen for certain diabetics, especially ones within a certain age range. Don’t be surprised if things they tell you about your diabetes now end up changing later. Treatments and diseases both evolve.
Good luck, and if you take the drug, watch out for low bp. My blood pressure always floats around low/normal. And if you come off of it, because it does lower blood pressure, you’ll have to rein in your salts a bit. I came off of it for a little while because the drugs were so expensive, and my blood pressure became slightly elevated for awhile.