I think they're cheesing so hard because they're convinced they've just saved their child's life.
Occasionally, you'll see the parents of a childhood cancer patient ask to take photos of or with the bag of stem cells the child is about to receive. Stem cell transplant remains the only shot at cure many kids have, and even though the preparation is absolutely unimaginable to watch, the infusion itself is kind of anticlimactic. Even though they've just been through hell and their child, worse than that, there's still this instinct to commemorate the moment. They smile because they're immensely relieved that the child has survived incredibly intense chemotherapy in preparation for this moment, and because the little bag of goo represents all of their dreams about the future.
I really think that a lot of these parents have been browbeaten into believing that a "teet yeet" or stinkditch surgery is like a stem cell transplant, something brutal and painful their child has to get through in order to fix a life-threatening medical condition. The happy "after" photos are because they really believe the worst is behind them and their baby is cured. Like the parents of the kid receiving stem cells, they're looking toward a hopeful future.
Unfortunately, some kids relapse post-transplant, and when that happens, the prognosis is not very good. This section of the Farms abounds with young people who were sold on the lie that their problems could be cured with a surgical procedure or two, and that even though the recovery would be extremely painful and difficult, it would all pay off once they were free to live as they deserved. Just like a child who relapses shortly after treatment, many of these troons are forced to reckon with the surgery not being the panacea they were told it would be, and once they've chosen to go through with it, how many options are truly left?
Pretty grim, all told.
