parse md5 in bash

[michael12345]

I'm working on a script and need to parse the hash from a file create by this command:
md5sum somefile >> md5_log

The reason I need to hash is the contents of md5_log does not identify the correct file...sorta.
i.e.

hashnumbers /dev/sda

where /dev/sda is the original file hashed.

I need to compare the hash to the file after it's been moved, thus /dev/sda is incorrect, so md5sum -c will not compare the correct file.

Any input on how I can do this? Parse to white space or copy the hash and replace /dev/sda?
I need a new log file for the comparison.

awk '{print $1}' md5log would seem to have promise if I could concatenate my variable that states the new file to the end of the awk output

finding some good info in here : http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=220435 but any input is always appreciated.