Do they do a MRI to detect kidney stones?

Churchmouse, I was the same way until I had my first one. That was back almost 30 years ago, one had to stay in the hospital hooked up to IV's until the stone passed. Taking that IV into the bathroom was no easy feat.

Now a days, they have you go home and wait it out. For the pain over the counter pain meds. Plus one pees into this plastic top hat looking thing, not easy to find the stone... it's like panning for gold :P

When you see them under microscopes they are incredibly jagged, FF; and the ureter is a very narrow piece of tubing. I wasn't very sympathetic at the time but I have since learned the error of my ways! Sorry it happened to you too.

Ultrasound, I thought, isn't it? I'm dredging my memory, this happened to my ex literally decades ago, but I think they use ultrasound.

It depends on the size of the stones as to what the doctor recommends next. I had a huge kidney stone that didn't even hurt because of the location. Normally a regular back x-ray will find the stone(s), but my doctor had ordered an MRI as I needed surgery to get the darn thing out. The surgery was fairly easy and quick.

Normally kidney stones will cause a really bad ache around the back of the waist. No matter how you sit or lay down, that area hurts. If the stone is small, one can pass it eventually in a couple of days of drinking a lot of water, or getting it started using IV in the doctor's office. That happened to me a few months ago. It is amazing something the size of a dot [ . ] can be such a pain.