I don’t think so… but I hope I’m wrong! Let’s see if anyone else has a good solution.

Easiest way to do it would be to use a Word doc and set up Preferences to link to it. (See “Create Links when Placing Text” checkbox in File Handling panel of Preferences dialog box) This will only work if you only make edits in Word, set up your para styles very carefully, and not edit or format in InDesign after placing.

WordsFlow is an even better (commercial) solution with much for flexibility:

Import Word Documents, Edit in Word and InDesign, and Keep Linked for Updating

Another option is to use the Edit > Place and Link feature. This isn’t a well-understood feature, but it can be quite powerful, and even works across two documents, like what you’re describing. Alan G wrote about it here:

Linking & Syncing Content in InDesign

@Alicia: How are you searching for tracking from 1 to 8, or 10 to 15, etc? Are you searching for 1, then 2, then 3, etc?
I just applied a tracking of 20 to some text and did a search for text that has tracking of 20 and it worked fine.