I need the wildcard string that would basically search for any single word
preceded by specific formatting and followed by a specific additional word.

Specifically: I need to copyedit a 500 page manuscript where the author
doesn't use the serial comma. (In other words, she writes "dogs, cats and
mice" and we want "dogs, cats, and mice")

I tried to search for ", * and" thinking that the "*" would yield any
single word, but instead I'm still getting long strings of words.

I also tried ", ?{2,9} and" but that yields similar results (a comma,
followed by a long string of words and even more commas, and finally the
"and")

This is so frustrating because I know there must be a way to do this!!!!

Furthermore, assuming there is a way to do this search, how would I then
replace a comma after the "mystery word"?