A:
The advice you received from your doctor is quite reasonable.
Plavix (clopidogrel) is a drug that helps prevent blood clots that might cause heart or neurological problems. After five years, your risk of a blood clot forming inside your stents is probably quite low. There has been plenty of time for the lining of your heart's arteries to coat the "foreign body" of the stents.
As long as patients are not having any side effects, many cardiologists keep patients on Plavix beyond the one year recommended in the guidelines. They do this because the drug should logically help prevent blood clots that might cause heart or neurological problems.
However, Plavix does carry the risk of bleeding, especially when combined with aspirin. It can have other side effects as well. There is not enough evidence to support using Plavix indefinitely. So if you are having another side effect –- financial pain! -– stopping at this point is very reasonable.
Thomas H. Lee, M.D., is the chief executive officer for Partners Community HealthCare Inc. He is a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. He is an internist and cardiologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital. Dr. Lee is the chairman of the Cardiovascular Measurement Assessment Panel of the National Committee for Quality Assurance. 
